Pharma: Boehringer boss on the potential of the pharmaceutical industry: West has “no monopoly on innovation”

Chinese companies are rapidly catching up in the development of new drugs. Shashank Deshpande, CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim, also sees this as an incentive for Europe.

Seoul. The CEO of the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, Shashank Deshpande, sees the growing competition from China as an incentive for the industry. "Competition stimulates business. Europe and America do not have a monopoly on innovation," Deshpande told the German Press Agency on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul. Good science is increasingly coming from China.

At the economic conference in the South Korean capital, Deshpande also emphasized the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region for innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Boehringer Ingelheim says it is conducting more than 200 clinical trials in the region, excluding China. The company also works with around 160 scientific institutions. The group is currently conducting around 50 clinical studies in South Korea alone.

According to Deshpande, artificial intelligence could also fundamentally change pharmaceutical research. At the end of October, Boehringer Ingelheim announced a strategic partnership with the US technology group Microsoft to research AI-supported clinical studies. Deshpande believes that this could potentially speed up the clinical development of a new drug by up to 50 percent.

The Asia-Pacific conference was opened on Friday by Chancellor Friedrich Merz. He once again promoted a global network for free trade based on international rules. Around 1,000 business representatives from Germany and the Indo-Pacific region took part in the Asia-Pacific conference.