Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH

Leo Pharma’s CEO Christophe Bourdon wants to be “the first to spot unmet needs” in medical dermatology, he said on the sidelines of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Danish dermatology specialist Leo Pharma and its CEO Christophe Bourdon came to San Francisco to attend the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference for a specific reason.“I know the power of addressing unmet needs and rare diseases and how to do this,” the CEO told Fierce Pharma in a Monday interview. “That’s why we’re here at J.P. Morgan. I’m looking to add other assets in the field of rare disease.”Since taking up the helm at Leo back in 2022, Bourdon has already made waves on the dealmaking front. Last summer, Leo linked up with Boehringer Ingelheim in a deal centered on the German drugmaker's generalized pustular psoriasis drug Spevigo, worth 90 million euros ($105 million). Through that deal, BI entrusted Leo to handle further development and commercialization of a treatment for one of the few dermatology diseases that can be fatal. Leo also took on some 40 Boehringer staffers with the deal, Bourdon noted.Boehringer, which Bourdon credits with “having the vision” to pursue a rare dermatology disease, “realized it’s a great asset, but they don’t have the platform that we have,” he explained in the interview.Leo’s “unique platform” in dermatology is now a point of pride for the century-old company, which boasts “60 years of specialist expertise” in the field, according to a recent press release. Today, the drugmaker serves 100 million patients in 70 countries, but to put it simply, “every dermatologist in the world knows Leo,” the exec said.Bourdon took over at Leo in 2022 after serving in leadership roles at drugmakers including Amgen and Alexion. At the time, Leo was a struggling company in need of cost-cutting after years of taking on new debt. Now, after a strategic transformation under Bourdon’s leadership, Leo’s 8% to 10% revenue growth guidance for 2025 is a far cry from the -1% year-over-year change the drugmaker reported back in 2021. The sales turnaround came even as Leo's cost-cutting measures shrank the Danish company’s headcount from 6,000 to 4,000 in recent years.Bourdon saw, and still sees, in Leo a chance to address the 1,000 skin diseases with no approved therapies. Those untapped disease areas, he said, are difficult to diagnose as it can “take time to get in front of the right physician to have the right diagnoses.” Even if diagnosed, receiving the right level of care isn’t guaranteed. For example, only 15% to 20% of patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis are on biologics, while the remaining patients are on corticosteroids, he said. Of course, Leo isn’t the only company making moves in the medical dermatology field. Incyte, for one, was the first to market a JAK inhibitor cream in its Opzelura, although Leo’s own topical JAK Anzupgo is the only medicine of its kind that doesn’t hold a black-boxed warning, Bourdon points out. Nonetheless, more innovation only serves to drive more awareness, the CEO explained.Although he welcomes competition in the space, “I want to stay ahead of that race,” Bourdon said.“I want to be the first to spot unmet needs,” he added. “I want to be the first one to spot which mechanism could make a difference and change the standard of care for patients.”And then, the CEO says, “I want to partner up.”Partnership strategy At 2025’s iteration of the conference, Leo opened with a $1.7 billion deal with Gilead Sciences. Gilead took interest in Leo’s preclinical research programs focused on STAT6, a transcription factor used for inflammatory disease-related IL-4 and IL-13 cytokine signaling. It was “one of the largest preclinical deals ever,” Bourdon said Monday. Now, the CEO says he's hungry for “more deals” and “more partnerships.”The Spevigo deal, for one, was a new endeavor for Leo as it was “one of the first times” the company entered the field of rare diseases in medical dermatology. But Bourdon, armed with his Alexion background, is looking to expand on the initial foray. One way to widen Leo's reach in the space is by leveraging the company’s dermatologist network and development platform to advance new assets initiated by other companies, the exec said.“There are so many companies with bright ideas, but they don’t have the platform,” Bourdon emphasized.The CEO figures that that’s where Leo can step in to lead the way through approval and commercialization. To that end, the company is “getting a lot of people knocking on our door” for potential partnerships, he said.“People realized the company has completely transformed itself,” he said. “We had a bold vision three years ago, and we have delivered on it.” 

AbbVie provided little detail on the particulars of its new investment plan, which follows a $10 billion U.S. commitment from the company—also focused on R&D and production—made last April. Though far from the first large drugmaker to strike a pricing deal with the Trump administration, AbbVie’s new accord is notable for the sheer size of the investment pledge that comes with it.Late Monday, the North Chicago-based pharma announced a deal with the White House to lower the prices of certain AbbVie medicines on Medicaid and pledged $100 billion in U.S. R&D and capital investments, including manufacturing projects, over the next 10 years.AbbVie provided no detail on the particulars of its investment plan, which follows a $10 billion U.S. commitment from the company—also focused on R&D and production—made last April. It is not entirely clear whether the previous investment will be folded into the new outlay. AbbVie did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investment plans. Meanwhile, as with other companies that have fallen in line behind the administration’s most-favored-nation drug pricing strategy, AbbVie has now agreed to expand its direct-to-patient offerings through the TrumpRx drug purchasing platform run by the federal government. Alphagan, Combigan, Humira and Synthroid are a few of the company’s drugs slated for sale on the government site, AbbVie said in a Jan. 12 press release. While certainly important medications, the drugs listed—with the current exception of Humira—are not major moneymakers for AbbVie.For all of 2024, the ocular meds Alphagan and Combigan secured combined sales of $248 million, while the decades-old thyroid drug Synthroid did not appear in the company’s 2024 report. Meanwhile, autoimmune juggernaut Humira continues to deliver respectable sales, though its trajectory is now in decline after losing patent exclusivity in 2023.  Through the accord, which the company asserts “addresses all four of the President’s drug pricing priorities,” AbbVie has won exemption from pharmaceutical import tariffs and “future price mandates,” according to its release."With approximately 29,000 U.S.-based employees and products treating 16 million Americans annually, we understand the complexity and access challenges in our healthcare system,” AbbVie CEO Robert Michael said in his company’s announcement. “AbbVie is following President Trump's call to action by reaching this agreement, allowing us to collectively move beyond policies that harm American innovation.”The call to action Michael referred to came last summer, when President Donald Trump sent letters to 17 of the world’s biggest drugmakers outlining steps they needed to take to rein in the costs of their drugs in the U.S. The president’s so-called most-favored-nation pricing strategy broadly seeks to align the costs of prescription medicines in the U.S. with lower prices offered in other comparable developed nations.Aside from AbbVie, the letters singled out Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Merck KGaA’s EMD Serono, Roche’s Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron and Sanofi.Following a string of similar industry-White House tie-ups in recent weeks, Regeneron is now the last pharma standing that hasn’t reached a most-favored-nation deal with Trump. J&J was the latest company to reach a deal prior to AbbVie, announcing that it had done so Jan. 8. Under similar terms to AbbVie’s deal and those before it, J&J pledged to lower drug costs, embrace more direct-to-patient sales channels and continue to execute on the $55 billion U.S. investment it announced last year. For its part, AbbVie had already committed last year to spend $10 billion on its U.S. operations through 2035, looking to grow into new indications like obesity and beef up its production infrastructure stateside.As part of that prior investment, AbbVie earlier Monday revealed that it will spend more than $175 million to acquire and modernize a device manufacturing facility in Tempe, Arizona. The company noted that the deal will support production of both its current and next-generation medicines across immunology and neuroscience. 

Not intended for US and UK audiences BI 765423 has been developed to target IL-11, a key driver of fibrosis New study will investigate potential of BI 765423 to improve lung function for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) Ingelheim, Germany, 13 January 2026 – Boehringer Ingelheim today announced the start of a Phase IIa clinical trial evaluating BI 765423 , a novel monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-11 (IL-11), in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). This study marks a significant milestone in the company’s commitment to advancing care for people living with progressive fibrotic lung diseases. IPF is a progressive, life-shortening lung disease that affects over three million people worldwide and most patients experience worsening breathlessness and declining lung function. It is deadlier than many forms of cancer, with a lower five-year survival rate compared to prostate cancer, female breast cancer and colon cancer. IPF substantially impacts quality of life and half of patients succumb to the disease within five years of diagnosis. Current medicines can slow disease progression but cannot fully halt lung function decline or reverse lung scarring. There remains a high unmet need for stopping disease progression or reversing the effects of IPF. “With BI 765423, we aim to go beyond slowing disease and to pursue next generation therapies that could restore lung functionality for people living with IPF,” said Vittoria Zinzalla, Global Head of Experimental Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim. “Our aim is to transform the lives of patients and their families by demonstrating the potential of this first-in-class IL-11 inhibitor to deliver clear benefits for patients, backed by compelling evidence and delivered at speed. “ IL-11 plays a key role in fibrosis across multiple organs, and pre-clinical studies have shown that anti-IL-11 treatment can halt fibrosis and restore barrier function, resulting in improved lung function and tissue integrity. BI 765423 is designed to bind directly to IL-11, blocking its interaction with its receptor and thereby interrupting the signaling pathways that cause fibrosis. By targeting this mechanism, BI 765423 aims not only to slow lung damage but also to help restore lung functionality. In Phase I studies, BI 765423 showed a favorable safety and tolerability pro healthy volunteers across a wide dose range. The Phase IIa study will be the first to evaluate its efficacy in patients with IPF. It is an acquired asset from Enleofen with in-licensed IP from Singapore Health Services and the National University of Singapore. Boehringer Ingelheim has a long-standing commitment to advancing care in pulmonary fibrosis and was just granted FDA approval for JASCAYD®, the first new treatment option in IPF in a decade. Boehringer Ingelheim Boehringer Ingelheim is a biopharmaceutical company active in both human and animal health. As one of the industry’s top investors in research and development, the company focuses on developing innovative therapies that can improve and extend lives in areas of high unmet medical need. Independent since its foundation in 1885, Boehringer takes a long-term perspective, embedding sustainability along the entire value chain. Our approximately 54,500 employees serve over 130 markets to build a healthier and more sustainable tomorrow. Learn more at . Intended Audiences Notice This press release is issued from our Corporate Headquarters in Ingelheim, Germany and is intended to provide information about our global business. Please be aware that information relating to the approval status and labels of approved products may vary from country to country, and a country-specific press release on this topic may have been issued in the countries where we do business.