Boehringer Mannheim and the DePuy group of health care companies, has announced a profit before interest and taxes of $339 million for fiscal 1992 -- up by 40 percent on 1991.

The group's net sales increased by 15.4 percent ($428.7 million) to $3.2 billion.

Capital expenditure went up by 5.5 percent ($17.8 million) to $339.7 million.

Research and development costs increased by 14.2 percent ($56.9 million) to $458.7 million.

Total assets went up by 3.5 percent ($111.7 million) to $3.28 billion, while shareholders' equity increased by 2.8 percent ($38 million) to $1.39 billion.

The group's largest revenue earner is diagnostics, which accounted for approximately half of total sales in 1993.

Other major contributors were pharmaceuticals ($857 million of total sales) orthopaedics ($432 million) and biochemicals ($168 million).