Innovation: Priority on Quality

In an interview with Porsche Consulting, Dr. Lothar Halmer, Chief Quality Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim, explains why top quality of medical products is an absolute priority for the pharmaceutical company: "The trust of our patients is our greatest resource." He is well aware of how fragile the reputations of companies and their products can be. "It takes a lot of time to build trust, but very little to destroy it," he notes. Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, has been developing new drugs for well over a century now. Patients, physicians, and pharmacists value its product quality. They also recognize the family-owned company's contributions to medical progress. Product and process quality are part of the DNA of Boehringer Ingelheim.

The company's future portfolio is extending to include digital therapies. One example would be apps that help people living with schizophrenia. Innovations of this type are known in the industry as "software as a medical device". As with its other new digital medical products, Boehringer Ingelheim has kept a sharp eye on special quality requirements from the start. These include meeting regulatory demands in areas such as data integrity and IT security. As Halmer explains, "The highest quality standards apply. Apps have to be just as safe and reliable for patients as the pills they take for cardiovascular diseases or diabetes."

Read the full article in Porsche Consulting Magazine