Our contribution to treatment success: Product development at Fresenius Kabi

Research and development: Progress for better, more accessible healthcare

More and more people need access to high-quality therapies. At the same time, the requirements for successful treatment of critically ill patients are becoming even higher. By developing new products and making continuous improvements to existing ones, we want to help drive forward medical progress in acute and post-acute care, and improve patients’ quality of life. Our goal is also to enable more and more people around the world to access high-quality and modern therapies through our products. These aspirations encourage us to continue investing substantial funding in research and development, and in 2023 we devoted 7.6% (2022: 8.0%) of our total revenues to this purpose.¹

At Fresenius Kabi, we define innovations as new substances, devices, software, containers, or services introduced in the marketplace, as well as reformulations of existing substances for a new market, and the registration and launch of established products in new countries. We focus our research and development activities on our core competencies in the following areas:

Biopharmaceuticals

In the biopharmaceutical area, our currently expanding product pipeline of biosimilars includes a range of commercialized medicines and molecules in various development stages. Predominantly targeting the areas of immunology and oncology, we are committed to providing access to biologics for more patients and healthcare providers around the world.

Infusion and nutrition therapies

Clinical nutrition provides care for patients who are unable to nourish themselves normally, or who are only able to do so insufficiently. This includes patients in intensive care, and those who are critically or chronically ill. Clinical nutrition that is appropriate to the indication and introduced at an early stage can avoid the common problem of malnutrition among hospital patients and avoid its consequences. There are two types of clinical nutrition therapy: parenteral nutrition and enteral nutrition.

• Parenteral nutrition
  The focus of our research and development in the product segment of parenteral nutrition is on product solutions that help improve the clinical treatment and nutritional condition of patients. Apart from the products themselves, these also include containers such as our multi-chamber bags. We want these bags to be safer and more convenient in everyday medical use, both in a hospital and in a homecare setting, and our development is consistently focused on this objective. Carrying out life cycle assessments also helps us to analyze and improve the environmental impacts of our multi-chamber bags. Furthermore, in 2023 we continued our development work on parenteral nutrition products. We are concentrating on new formulations that are specially tailored to the needs of individual patient groups. Alongside our global development projects, we are also working on appropriate projects for specific markets and regions in China, Europe, and the United States.
• Enteral nutrition
  In the area of enteral nutrition, we are focusing our research and development activities on product concepts that support therapeutic compliance, and thereby ensure successful treatment. The flavor of the enteral products is a critical parameter determining the acceptance of the products and compliance with medical instructions for nutritional therapy. For many years, we have been focusing on developing products with excellent flavors and a range of variations. These offer users variety and make it easier for them to carry out the prescribed nutritional therapy. The launch of the PLANT-BASED Drink in 2023 also enabled us to respond to the needs of those patients who are committed to plant-based nutrition. Furthermore, we are increasing our focus on developing products with higher calorie and protein concentration. They are geared toward empowering users to take in the necessary amount of nutrients even when product volumes are reduced.

Medical devices

Fresenius Kabi continues to develop medical devices for the administration of pharmaceuticals and nutrients. We create completely new products and carry out further development of existing products. Our product range includes infusion and nutrition pumps, infusion management systems, and devices for anesthesia monitoring, as well as disposables such as infusion sets, extension lines, enteral nutrition tubes, and monitoring electrodes. A specific segment of these products has been designed for pediatric use.

Successful digitalization is a more crucial factor in medical technology than in any other of our product segments because it is a critical factor in ensuring the success and efficiency of treatments. Devices have to be continuously developed in relation to their applications and they also have to be increasingly embedded in the IT system landscape of hospitals, blood donation centers, and plasma centers. Our research and development department is therefore focusing particularly on the continuous development of our software solutions.

Generic intravenous pharmaceuticals

Fresenius Kabi provides a wide range of intravenous (IV) generics (biosimilars are drugs with the same active ingredients that are similar to an original reference biologic product). They are infused directly into a patient’s vein through an access port. The group of patients treated with these medications is primarily made up of seriously ill people in hospital – for example in emergency medicine and intensive care.

In the area of generic IV drugs, we are working continuously on the expansion of our product range and in 2023 we continued to launch new medicines on the market. In addition, we are working on the continuous improvement of our drugs that are already on the market. For example, we are developing IV drugs with new formulations and dosage forms, and optimized primary packaging to make application easier. In 2023, we worked on more than 100 active generic drug projects.

Digitalization for more efficiency and quality

Innovative digital processes and applications are intended to further enhance the quality of treatment, improve the care and quality of life of patients, and open up new business areas. We want to harness our digital technical services to contribute to improving the efficiency of workflows in hospitals and nursing homes. Digital applications for technical services can accelerate maintenance processes and keep service-related downtimes for medical devices to a minimum. Our goal is to offer our solutions in as many countries of the world as possible.

You can find information on digital processes and applications at Fresenius Kabi here.

¹ Before special items and excluding impairment losses from capitalized in-process R&D activities.