Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly's Jardiance gets big lift from heart failure indications

It’s been more than a year since Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly’s Jardiance became the first drug to score approvals for the two major types of heart failure (HF), opening a huge patient population and the potential for a sales bump.

So, how’s it going so far? On Wednesday, when BI reported its full-year 2022 sales figures, the company showed more evidence of the momentum the HF indications have brought. Jardiance generated 5.8 billion euros ($6.1 billion) of sales in 2022, good for a 39% increase from 2021.

In 2020—still riding a wave from approvals in 2014 for Type 2 diabetes and in 2016 to reduce cardiovascular death from Type 2—worldwide Jardiance sales rose 22% compared to 2019.

But the HF nods have sparked another surge. The first came in August of 2021, for HF with reduced ejection fraction, and helped produce a 29% sales increase for the year. 

The second HF endorsement came in February of 2022, helping further fuel the drug's growth.

Jardiance wasn’t just successful from a sales standpoint last year. After posting a clear win in the EMPA-KIDNEY study, the companies halted the phase 3 trial and applied for approvals in the United States and Europe to treat chronic kidney disease.

Then in December, another trial showed Jardiance was the first SGLT2 inhibitor to reduce blood sugar levels in children and adolescents with Type 2 diabetes. Earlier this month the companies filed for an approval with the FDA.

The performance of Jardiance helped offset the rising costs of R&D and energy, BI said. The private German company reported that it spent 5.05 billion euros on R&D last year compared with 4.13 billion euros in 2021.

Also playing a big role for BI in 2022 was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment Ofev, which delivered a sales increase of 20.6% to hit 3.2 billion euros.

BI has also made a push into contract manufacturing, generating 1 billion euros in CDMO revenue last year, up from $914 million in 2021.

“The strong commercial performance provides a solid base to finance our late-stage pipeline, mid-term growth opportunities, as well as further investments in new technologies,” Michael Schmelmer, a member of the board with responsibility for finance and group functions, said in a release.