About Bayer Healthcare

Complex solutions for the healthcare market - all under one roof

Bayer HealthCare comprises the Animal Health, Biologicals, Consumer Care, Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals divisions. With its broad portfolio and its intensive research and development of new active ingredients, Bayer HealthCare aims to further strengthen its market position.

Over 36,000 people throughout the world work for the five Bayer HealthCare divisions, which cover the entire range of products and services for the healthcare sector - innovative diagnostic systems, modern prescription pharmaceuticals, world-renowned, well tolerated over-the-counter drugs in innovative forms of administration, and animal health products.

Using high-tech to develop new drugs

The corporate goal of Bayer HealthCare's Pharmaceuticals Division is to discover and bring to market innovative, highly effective drugs that can prevent, relieve or cure disease.

We focus on the major life-threatening illnesses - such as cardiovascular disorders or cancer, which are the main causes of death, and on other ailments that significantly impair the quality of life and life expectancy. These include, for example, diabetes, bacterial and viral infections, obesity and urological disorders. For next year we are planning the worldwide launch of a new drug containing the active ingredient vardenafil to treat erectile dysfunction.

The Pharmaceuticals Division makes use not only of results from its own research activities. The strategic element here is a network of leading technology providers that supports our active ingredient research. Bayer has succeeded in integrating the enabling technologies like genomics and bioinformatics with its own core competencies such as combinatorial chemistry, high-throughput screening and substance libraries - and deploying these tools effectively. This high-tech platform has significantly increased the productivity of our pharmaceutical research.

New stimulus for the diagnosis of infections and cancer

Bayer Diagnostics is one of the world's leading suppliers of diagnostic systems. Its products permit fast and reliable blood and urine analysis in large laboratories (laboratory automation systems), in physicians' offices and in hospitals (tabletop units), or also self-testing at home or while travelling (blood glucose meters / urine test strips).

Our flagship product for large laboratories, the fully automated ADVIA® CentaurTM system, enables up to 240 tests an hour and offers a wide range of assays for conditions including infectious diseases, allergies, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders.

We are also successfully investing in the field of tumor diagnostics. Researchers at Bayer subsidiary Oncogene Science have developed assays for improved early detection of prostate cancer and for detecting and monitoring the therapy of metastatic breast cancer. This assay is the first of a new generation that helps the oncologist select a therapy geared specifically to individual patient needs. The assay thus represents the first step toward patient-specific breast cancer treatment.

Novel Treatments That Save and Sustain Lives

The Biologicals Division, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States, is a leader in blood products industry. This division is dedicated to developing and producing novel treatments that extend and enhance the lives of individuals who are diagnosed with a variety of life-threatening diseases. Their portfolio of plasma products includes Polyglobin®/Gamimune®, an immunoglobulin used as a replacement therapy for patients with immunodeficiency and various autoimmune disorders, and Prolastin®, which is indicated for chronic augmentation therapy of patients having congenital pulmonary emphysema. The division also manufactures the genetically engineered Kogenate® product line for the treatment of hemophilia A.

For this division, too, intensive research is the key to tomorrow's success. The Biologicals product portfolio also includes many highly promising new developments, such as recombinant alpha1-proteinase inhibitor (recAAT) made from the milk of transgenic sheep. Aerosolized recAAT may slow down the progression of emphysema in patients with congenital alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency. Bayer already has a unique position in this market with Prolastin, the only replacement therapy currently available to this patient group. Also showing promise is the enzyme plasmin, which is manufactured from human blood plasma and capable of dissolving blood clots rapidly and effectively. This could well open up new opportunities very soon for the treatment of arterial and vein thromboses or pulmonary embolism. In addition, Bayer's scientists are also continuing to develop the Kogenate® product line.

We take "Consumer Care" literally

Health is people's most valuable asset, and nowadays an increasing number of people prefer to self- manage their health. This trend is accompanied by ever-increasing health service costs.

Addressing the needs of this development, the Consumer Care Division markets over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and food supplements in innovative presentations in more than 80 countries. The product portfolio includes painkillers and cold remedies, stomach remedies, and products to counter fungal skin infections and vitamin deficiencies.

In Aspirin®, Consumer Care has the world's best-known medicine. Apart from its original areas of application in relieving pain, fever and inflammation, the active ingredient of Aspirin® is currently the gold standard for preventing recurrent myocardial infarction and stroke. Scientific findings also suggest that the application potential of Aspirin® is nowhere near exhausted.

Bayer HealthCare is currently the global number five in the OTC market and enjoys the trust and confidence of consumers throughout the world.

Global success with veterinary medicines

The Animal Health Division is headquartered in Monheim near Leverkusen. It produces around 100 different veterinary medicines, vaccines and grooming products for livestock and companion animals and markets them in more than 140 countries.

What Responsible Care actually means for humankind and the animal world was demonstrated particularly clearly in the fight against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Animal Health maintains a vaccine bank in Germany for emergencies and can supply the vaccine immediately when required. Even if the disease should break out in other countries of the world, Bayer can deliver.

The division has high expectations of its marker vaccines against economically significant diseases such as shipping fever (bovine respiratory disease) and European Swine Fever (ESF). They have a major advantage over conventional vaccines in that infected animals can be distinguished from vaccinated ones. This means that trading restrictions are no longer necessary because infected animals - provided they are examined before slaughter - can no longer enter the market.

A company is only as strong as its products. The main products in Bayer HealthCare's Animal Health Division are antiflea agents for cats and dogs, prescription-only drugs for treating infectious diseases in livestock and companion animals, parasiticides, and marker vaccines for cattle and pigs. Its vast experience in the development of veterinary products makes Bayer one of the leading players in this segment.

Bayer HealthCare - flexible and customer-oriented

Bayer HealthCare has annual sales of some EUR 11 billion - a clear indication of its competitiveness and potential. Its operational independence gives it even greater flexibility, for example with regard to further strategic partnerships, and makes it more customer-oriented.

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