Boehringer Ingelheim breaks ground on €285M API plant in Germany

Boehringer Ingelheim kicked off construction on a new 285 million euro ($315 million) plant at its German headquarters that will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients and drugs for clinical trials.

The Chemical Innovation Plant is expected to begin operating in 2026 at Boehringer’s base in Ingelheim, Germany, the company said in a May 2 press release.

The facility is part of the drugmaker’s goal to secure long-term capacity for manufacturing new chemical entities. Biopharmaceuticals and small molecules account for about half of Boehringer’s research pipeline, the company noted.

Boehringer's new plant will fill a manufacturing gap between the company's smaller pilot plants in Biberach, Germany, and Ridgefield, Connecticut, and the commercial production of APIs for marketed products in Ingelheim.

When completed, the structure will comprise 11,500 square meters on seven floors. It'll house four production lines with associated development areas and be designed to accommodate future expansion.

“The Chemical Innovation Plant will enable us to offer life-saving, more effective therapy options to patients from our research pipeline at a faster pace,” Hubertus von Baumbach, Boehringer’s board chairman, said in the release.

Last April, Boehringer said it would spend 7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) on capital investments through 2025. More than 40% of the spend was focused on “new technologies” and the expansion of the the company’s research and production network in its home country as well as in the U.S., Japan, Austria, France and Spain.