Nippon Boeh Ing again records fastest growth in Japan's ethical drug market

The Japanese subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim, the privately-owned German pharmaceutical major, is aiming for sales of 200.0 billion yen ($1.98 billion) in 2010, Takashi Kanda, representative director, head of prescription medicine at Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim, said at a press conference in Tokyo.

The firm's 2007 prescription drug turnover increased 15% to 158.2 billion yen on a national health insurance basis compared to 2006, thanks to good performances of its global strategic products including Micardis (telmisartan) for hypertension, BI-Sifrol (pramipexol) for Parkinson's diseases, Spiriva (tiotropium) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, resulting in boosting its rank to 17th from 18th in 2006 and gaining a 2% share in the Japanese ethical drug market.

As a result, NBI has recorded the fastest growth rate for three consecutive years since 2005 in terms of the prescription drug market, advancing 28% versus an average of 7.5% for the sector, 18% vs minus 0.6% and 15% vs 4.6% in 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively.