Dr. Albrecht Kissel moved from his native Germany to Missouri in 2011 to become the president and CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) and this year he had the chance to attend the company’s annual North Carolina Swine Health Seminar.
Trained as a veterinarian, Kissel has been with BI since 1993 and he shared a little bit about BIVI and the company’s dedication to the hog industry. “BI is the largest privately held pharmaceutical corporation in the world,” said Kissel, adding that it got the name when it was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. The animal health portion of the company is located in St. Joseph, Missouri and the global animal health, consumer and biopharmaceutical businesses account for about 25% of the company’s overall sales of $17 billion.
Kissel stressed BIVI’s research and development investment. “We spend between 10 and 13 percent of annual sales in R&D versus an industry average of 7-8 percent,” he said. “We base our future mainly on organic growth coming out of our own R&D efforts.
“We want to be a knowledge partner to the swine industry,” he added. “So we have developed a pretty high level of expertise in-house that we want to share with the industry.”
Interview with Albrecht Kissel, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica