Midway through Bloomberg's annual ranking of families with the largest fortunes are two that amassed their wealth through pharmaceutical companies.
The families behind Boehringer Ingelheim and Roche sit in spots No. 13 and No. 17, respectively, of Bloomberg's 2023 list of the 25 Richest Families in the World.
No. 13: Albert Boehringer founded drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim in Germany in 1885 with a humble chemical factory that got its start producing lactic acid in industrial quantities. Four generations later, the Boehringer family remains in charge of the global operating company, which has 146 subsidiaries. The family's estimated wealth is $51.3 billion.
Boehringer Ingelheim Chairman and CEO Hubertus von Baumbach is the great-grandson of Mr. Boehringer, and his extended family serves as owners of the closely held company, according to Bloomberg.
No. 17: Behind the Swiss multinational company Roche are five generations of family, which today control about 10 percent of the company. The family's estimated wealth is $44.8 billion.
Roche Holding was founded by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche in 1896 at age 28. Thirty-eight years later, it became the first company to mass-produce synthetic vitamin C, unleashing its dominance as a vitamin supplier. Another patent, this one purchased in 1991, would prove fruitful: that for the PCR testing technique, used extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joerg Duschmale, a fifth-generation family member, joined the board of Roche in 2020. Earlier this year, an unidentified family member sold a $900 million stake in the company, which briefly disrupted the stock price.
For comparison, House of Nahyan — the ruling royal family of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi — and Walmart's Walton family hold the first and second places on Bloomberg's list, with $305 billion and $259.7 billion in estimated wealth, respectively. As a group, the world's richest families gained $1.5 trillion in wealth in 2023 since the last ranking.