Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbott Labs Form U.S. Marketing Pact
Bloomberg News
March 3, 1999, 5:37 a.m. ET
Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbott Labs Form U.S. Marketing Pact
Ingelheim, Germany, March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Boehringer
Ingelheim Pharma KG, Europe's biggest privately held drugmaker,
said it signed an agreement with the U.S.'s Abbott Laboratories
to sell and promote its products in the U.S.
Under the eight-year agreement, Abbott, the seventh-largest
U.S. drugmaker, will sell Boehringer Ingelheim's Micardis
(telmisartan) high blood-pressure medicine, which was introduced
in the U.S. in January, and its Mobic (meloxicam) arthritis and
rheumatism drug, which is used by more than a million patients in
70 countries. Financial details were not disclosed.
Boehringer Ingelheim said the cooperation will expand the
opportunities for both companies in the U.S., the world's largest
pharmaceuticals market. It said more than 50 million Americans
suffer from high blood pressure, and sales of drugs to treat this
ailment total about $7.2 billion annually.
The cooperation with Abbott gives Boehringer Ingelheim ''a
strong marketing partner with an efficient service operation,
which will give our products a good start in the U.S. market,''
said Rolf Krebs, chief of Boehringer Ingelheim's pharmaceutical
unit.
Abbott, of Abbott Park, Illinois, already has the co-
marketing rights for meloxicam in Latin America, Central America,
Mexico and the Caribbean.
--Phyllis Carter in the Frankfurt newsroom (49-69) 92041-200/ph
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