Boehringer, Lilly Restructure Diabetes Alliance

Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Co. are changing the operational and financial structure of their diabetes alliance in certain countries in an effort to enhance efficiencies and enable greater focus on product launches. Under the revised agreement, effective January 1, 2015, 17 countries representing more than 90% of the alliance’s anticipated market, will continue their co-promotion work, and in all other countries, the companies will exclusively commercialize their respective molecules.
 
The alliance remains unchanged in the following 17 countries: U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain, France, UK, Ireland, Portugal, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, and Mexico. The companies will now exclusively commercialize the respective molecules they brought to the alliance in all other countries under revised financial terms that will include an upfront payment and ongoing payments to Lilly in lieu of commission in those markets.
 
“Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim have a highly successful alliance,” said Enrique Conterno, president, Lilly Diabetes. “In less than four years, our companies have worked to develop and introduce several new important treatments for diabetes. The revised agreement will bring greater focus and clarity to our alliance and will benefit health care professionals, patients, and our companies. We look forward to continuing our important work together that makes life better for people with diabetes.”
 
To date, three new diabetes treatments have been launched by the alliance: Trajenta (linagliptin), Jardiance (empagliflozin), and Jentadueto (linagliptin/metformin HCI). Additionally, the alliance’s new insulin glargine product has been tentatively approved in the U.S. and approved in Europe. Other potential treatments, including fixed-dose combinations, are under development.
 
“As our alliance continues to evolve, and with more medicines receiving approval by regulators, we have determined that enhancements are needed to reduce operational complexities in certain countries around the world,” said Dr. Ulrich Drees, corporate senior vice president, International Project Management, Boehringer Ingelheim. “By continuing our work under this revised model, our companies can better focus on the important task of delivering innovative solutions to patients.”