With an eye on the epithelium, Boehringer seeks its next fibrosis breakthrough

Boehringer Ingelheim’s plan to maintain its leadership in pulmonary fibrosis starts with challenging one of the field’s core assumptions: that fibrosis is primarily a myofibroblast problem. Other cell types are the focus of the pharma’s internal discovery work, and Head of Immunology and Respiratory Disease Research Carine Boustany is urging biotech innovators to think beyond the small molecules and signaling pathways that have come to dominate the pulmonary fibrosis pipeline.

Boustany, who stepped into her current role four years ago after more than a decade in Boehringer’s cardiometabolic research division, inherited a pulmonary fibrosis research effort built on decades of work at the pharma...