BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM: Increases commitments to sustainable development

Today, on the occasion of the World Health Summit 2021, Boehringer Ingelheim shares an update on its strategic approach to sustainable development. A commitment to initiatives that contribute to ‘More Health’, one of the three pillars within the company’s ‘Sustainable Development – For Generations’ framework.

Continuing a journey that began more than 135 years ago, Boehringer Ingelheim is building on its track record in addressing unmet health needs, increasing the company’s ambitions to tackle global health challenges. The strategic approach also focuses on the strength and value of collaboration and long-term partnerships to contribute towards achieving a healthier and more sustainable future for society.

Specifically, Boehringer Ingelheim renews its commitment to areas in which it has the expertise and capability to create value for patients and communities:

• Expanding NCD healthcare access for 50 million people in vulnerable communities
• Investing EUR 250 million in partnerships and collaborations to combat infectious diseases in human and animal health
• Increased investment in health innovation to EUR 35 billion to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 2030
• Supporting initiatives to alleviate significant challenges such as tackling rabies and African Animal Sleeping Sickness, as well as advancing parasitology, aiming at continuously integrating efficacy and environmental aspects

Hubertus von Baumbach, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim says: “For generations, our commitment has not only been to improve health, but more than this, we aspire to transform the lives of people. Never has the need for a holistic approach to address the intertwined connection between humans, animals and the environment been so clear. We believe this is where Boehringer Ingelheim is uniquely positioned and where we can create a real contribution towards a healthier and more sustainable future.”

The MORE HEALTH pillar of the ‘Sustainable Development – For Generations’ framework follows Boehringer Ingelheim’s ambition to develop better therapies, enable better healthcare solutions and contribute to a better world for future generations. It further evolves Boehringer Ingelheim’s commitments and significantly increases the company’s contribution to positively impacting health, societal and environmental issues, in alignment with the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Carinne Brouillon, Head of Human Pharma and Member of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim says: “MORE HEALTH is our unique approach of addressing the health needs of both humans and animals and their shared environment. It shows the diversity of our work and underlines our ambition in Human Pharma to transform patients’ lives by delivering innovative healthcare solutions, better and faster. For this we are collaborating with diverse partners worldwide.”

Boehringer Ingelheim is updating and advancing a number of projects and initiatives within the MORE HEALTH pillar, reflecting the diversity of its patients and expertise of its partners. These projects have already achieved significant milestones over the years, for example:

• Patient assistance and product donation initiatives have reached over 150,000 patients worldwide, across 77 countries on all continents
• The Angels Initiative, committed to expanding the network of stroke centers and stroke-ready hospitals, has enrolled over 5,400 hospitals that have served 8.6 million patients to date with substantially improved care
• The Kuza Afya program in Kenya, a diabetes and hypertension care program, has screened approximately 79,000 people for these diseases, trained over 500 healthcare professionals and offered a path to treatment for over 5,000 previously unserved patients
• In 2019, an initiative was launched in partnership with PharmAccess, a non-profit organization that works to improve access to quality healthcare in Africa, to leverage mobile technology in Kenya to address awareness and access barriers in hypertension and diabetes
• The ‘Pathway’ health project fund in Canada will impact the lives of over 20,000 people, addressing the excessive prevalence of certain NCDs in indigenous communities
• The Last Mile initiative, stretching across six countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has reached over 7,000 smallholder farmers, training them in leveraging access to healthcare solutions, vaccines and treatments to optimize the health and productivity of their livestock
• In 2020 a new pilot program was launched in Pakistan in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to eliminate rabies by donating Boehringer Ingelheim’s vaccine, Rabisin®, and collars which help to identify vaccinated dogs

With new initiatives continuously being created and existing ones evolving and expanding, Boehringer Ingelheim expects MORE HEALTH to continue to gain momentum as the company moves towards its 2030 commitments.

MORE HEALTH is one of three pillars within Boehringer Ingelheim’s ‘Sustainable Development – For Generations’ framework. It is accompanied by MORE POTENTIAL, aimed at co-creating healthy, inclusive and sustainable communities, and MORE GREEN, geared towards the protection of natural resources and the reduction of the company’s carbon footprint.