60th anniversary of Boehringer Ingelheim in Austria

60th anniversary of Boehringer Ingelheim in Austria

>> High-ranking politicians highlight the company’s importance for the Austrian economy

The 60th anniversary of Boehringer Ingelheim’s presence in Austria was the highpoint of the traditional New Year reception by the pharmaceutical company on 9 January 2008. Before 200 invited guests, high-ranking personalities, including Federal Minister Martin Bartenstein, State Secretary Christa Kranzl and Vice-Mayor Renate Brauner, acknowledged the company’s diverse activities and its importance for the Austrian economy. Representatives of the political, economic, scientific, medical and pharmaceutical community and the Confederation of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions as well as customers and suppliers were all in attendance.

Importance of the company for the region

The high-tech company, founded in 1948 in a Viennese pharmacy under the name Bender + Co GesmbH, was the first foreign subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim. Apart from pharmaceuticals, it also made other products in Austria, including health care items and even baking agents. From its modest beginnings, as Federal Minister Martin Bartenstein pointed out in his welcome message, Boehringer Ingelheim Austria had developed into an important regional centre with business responsibility for 30 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and some 1,000 employees.

Vice-Mayor Renate Brauner and State Secretary Christa Kranzl highlighted the importance of Boehringer Ingelheim as an employer, major investor and stimulus for the life science sector in the region. Within just five years it had created almost 470 new jobs and invested more than 172 million euros in new research, production and administrative facilities. “Austria and Vienna are notable for their farsighted thinking and stability – qualities that a family-owned company particularly appreciates,” said Andreas Barner, member of the board of managing directors, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Germany. Klaus Stochl, Boehringer Ingelheim country manager for Austria, Central and Eastern Europe, thanked the city of Vienna in particular for its cooperation and support but called for a stable long-term framework in the health sector.

Important position within the Group

The Boehringer Ingelheim location in Vienna has an important position in the international Group thanks to its responsibility as a regional centre, its biopharmaceutical activities and its role as a cancer research centre. Every year Boehringer Ingelheim spends around 70 million euros on research in Austria.

The Boehringer Ingelheim Group

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 137 affiliates in 47 countries and 38,400 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine. The company has not only a long tradition but also a distinctive corporate culture. In 2007 Boehringer Ingelheim was cited in a survey by the renowned magazine Science as a top employer in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sector.

Boehringer Ingelheim Austria

Boehringer Ingelheim is represented in Austria by the Regional Center Vienna and basic Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. As a regional centre for Vienna, Central and Eastern Europe, Boehringer Ingelheim Austria has responsibility not only for the Austrian market for the markets of totally 30 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Core activities are pharmaceutical business (human pharmaceuticals and animal health) and clinical studies in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. Vienna is also the cancer research centre and one of the two biopharmaceutical production facilities of the Group. In 2006 the Boehringer Ingelheim Regional Center Vienna, Central and Eastern Europe, achieved a revenue of 445.8 million euros and employed 1,991 people in Austria and Eastern Europe.

Contact
Boehringer Ingelheim Österreich GmbH
Dr. Boehringer-Gasse 5-11 A-1121 Vienna Tel. +43 1 801050 Fax +43 1 804 0823
www.boehringer-ingelheim.at

Inge Homolka, inge.homolka(at)vie.boehringer-ingelheim.com
Communications Tel. ext 2230 Monika Primenz, monika.primenz(at)vie.boehringer-ingelheim.com
Communications Tel. ext. 2742

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