Bayer Follow Verify

https://www.bayer.com/
BAYER
Type	Public / Private
Slogan	Science For A Better Life
Headquarters	Leverkusen, Germany
Number of employees	115,200 people worldwide

Bayer is a German multinational chemical, pharmaceutical and life science company with a more than 150-year history and core competencies in the areas of health care and agriculture. They focus on three divisions- Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health and Crop Science, as well as the Animal Health business unit which acts as the reporting segment. There are 241 consolidated companies** in 79 countries throughout the world.

** fully consolidated subsidiaries (as of October. 27, 2017)

History

It all starts with a friendship between two men, plenty of natural curiosity and two kitchen stoves. Businessman Friedrich Bayer and dyer Johann Friedrich Weskott use these to conduct experiments and eventually discover how to make the dye fuchsine. On August 1, 1863, they found the "Friedr. Bayer et. comp." company in Wuppertal-Barmen, a 19th century startup with tremendous potential.

The company's corporate logo, the Bayer cross, was introduced in 1904. Bayer was founded as a dyestuffs factory in 1863 in Barmen (later part of Wuppertal), Germany, by Friedrich Bayer and his partner, Johann Friedrich Weskott, a master dyer.[12] Bayer was responsible for the commercial tasks. Fuchsine and aniline became the company's most important products.[citation needed]

The headquarters and most production facilities moved from Barmen to a larger area in Elberfeld in 1866. Friedrich Bayer (1851–1920), son of the company’s founder, was a chemist and joined the company in 1873. After the death of his father in 1880, the company became a joint-stock company, Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayern & Co, also known as Elberfelder Farbenfabriken.[citation needed]

Bayer cross, Leverkusen A further expansion in Elberfeld was impossible, so the company moved to the village Wiesdorf at Rhein and settled in the area of the alizarin producer Leverkus and Sons. A new city, Leverkusen, was founded there in 1930 and became home to Bayer AG's headquarters. The company's corporate logo, the Bayer cross, was introduced in 1904, consisting of the word BAYER written vertically and horizontally, sharing the Y and enclosed in a circle.[13] An illuminated version of the logo is a landmark in Leverkusen.[14]

The Early Years (1863–1881)

The general partnership "Friedr. Bayer et comp." was founded on August 1, 1863 in Barmen - now a district of the city of Wuppertal - by dye salesman Friedrich Bayer (1825–1880) and master dyer Johann Friedrich Weskott (1821–1876). The objective of the company was the manufacturing and selling of synthetic dyestuffs. The production of these dyes from coal-tar derivatives had only been invented a few years previously, opening up a new field of business for the still-young chemical industry. The target market was the textile industry, which at the time was growing rapidly in the wake of industrialization. The natural dyes that had been used until then were scarce and expensive. New inventions, such as the synthesis of the red dye alizarin, and the strong demand for tar dyes led to a boom in new foundings. Many dye factories were built at this time, but only innovative companies with their own research facilities and the ability to exploit opportunities on the international market managed to survive over the long term. Bayer was one of these companies.

Becoming an International Company (1881–1914)

Between 1881 and 1913, Bayer developed into a chemical company with international operations. Although dyestuffs remained the company's largest division, new fields of business were joining the fold.

Of primary importance for Bayer's continuing development was the establishment of a major research capability by Carl Duisberg (1861–1935). A scientific laboratory was built in Wuppertal-Elberfeld – which was also the company's headquarters from 1878 until 1912 – that set new standards in industrial research. Bayer's research efforts gave rise to numerous intermediates, dyes and pharmaceuticals, including the "drug of the century," Aspirin®, which was developed by Felix Hoffmann and launched onto the market in 1899.

The Pharmaceutical Department Is Established

The financial foundation for expansion was laid in 1881, when Bayer was transformed into a joint stock company called "Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co." The company's impressive growth in its early years can be directly linked to its growing workforce, which grew from three in 1863 to more than 300 in 1881.

An International Presence

The creation of a worldwide sales organization was a decisive factor in the company's continuing development. Bayer had already shipped dyestuffs to many countries in its early years. By 1913, over 80 percent of revenues came from exports. Bayer today is represented in nearly all countries of the world. Bayer appointed a sales representative for the United States in 1865. A few years later, the company acquired an interest in a coal tar dye factory in Albany, New York. Over the following decades, additional foreign affiliated companies were established in order to secure and expand Bayer's position in important markets. Shortly before World War I, the company maintained subsidiaries in Russia, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States. Of the approximately 10,000 people employed by Bayer in 1913, nearly 1,000 worked outside of Germany.

Leverkusen Becomes Company Headquarters

As time went on, the Elberfeld site proved to be too small for continuing expansion. For this reason, Bayer first purchased the alizarin red factory of Dr. Carl Leverkus & Sons north of Cologne in 1891 before acquiring additional land along the Rhine River. Starting in 1895, Bayer systematically expanded this site according to plans drawn up by Carl Duisberg, who served as the company's Management Board Chairman from 1912 to 1925. Leverkusen became the company's headquarters in 1912.

The Japanese Garden in Leverkusen

The Japanese Garden dates back to 1912. It was created on the initiative of the then General Director of Farbenfabrik Friedrich Bayer & Co. – Carl Duisberg – under professional guidance and has been open to the public since the 1950s. Today, many CHEMPARK employees regularly spend their lunch break there. 

Aspirin

Bayer's first major product was acetylsalicylic acid (originally discovered by French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853), a modification of salicylic acid or salicin, a folk remedy found in the bark of the willow plant. By 1899, Bayer's trademark Aspirin was registered worldwide for Bayer's brand of acetylsalicylic acid, but "Aspirin" lost its trademark status in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom because of the confiscation of Bayer's US assets and trademarks during World War I by the United States and the subsequent widespread usage of the word to describe all brands of the compound. It is now widely used in the US, UK, and France for all brands of the drug. However, it is still a registered trademark of Bayer in more than 80 other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Switzerland. As of 2011, approximately 40,000 tons of aspirin are produced each year and 10-20 billion tablets are taken in the United States alone each year for prevention of cardiovascular events. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.

Controversies

There has been controversy over the roles played by Bayer scientists in the development of aspirin. Arthur Eichengrün, a Bayer chemist, claimed to be the first to discover an aspirin formulation which did not have the unpleasant side effects of nausea and gastric pain. Eichengrün also claimed that he invented the name aspirin and was the first person to use the new formulation to test its safety and efficacy. Bayer contends that aspirin was discovered by Felix Hoffmann to alleviate the sufferings of his father, who had arthritis. Various sources support the conflicting claims. Most mainstream historians attribute the invention of aspirin to Felix Hoffmann and/or Arthur Eichengrün.

Bayer sued over controversial contraceptive pill Yasminelle

Products

Overview

In 1953 Bayer brought the first neuroleptic (chlorpromazine) onto the German market. In the 1960s Bayer introduced a pregnancy test, Primodos, that consisted of two pills that contained norethisterone (as acetate) and ethinylestradiol. It detected pregnancy by inducing menstruation in women who were not pregnant; the presence or absence of menstrual bleeding was then used to determine whether the user was pregnant. The test became the subject of controversy when it was blamed for birth defects, and it was withdrawn from the market in the mid-1970s. Litigation in the 1980s ended inconclusively. A review of the matter by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in 2014 assessed the studies performed to date and found the evidence for adverse effects to be inconclusive.

Bayer has owned Alka-Seltzer since 1978.

In 1978 Bayer purchased Miles Laboratories and its subsidiaries Miles Canada and Cutter Laboratories, acquiring along with them a variety of product lines including Alka-Seltzer, Flintstones vitamins and One-A-Day vitamins, and Cutter insect repellent.

Along with the purchase of Cutter, Bayer acquired Cutter's Factor VIII business. Factor VIII, a clotting agent used to treat hemophilia, was produced, at the time, by processing donated blood. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, people with hemophilia were found to have higher rates of AIDS, and by 1983 the CDC had identified contaminated blood products as a source of infection. According to the New York Times, this was "one of the worst drug-related medical disasters in history". Companies, including Bayer, developed new ways to treat donated blood with heat to decontaminate it, and these new products were introduced early in 1984. In 1997 Bayer and the other three makers of such blood products agreed to pay $660 million to settle cases on behalf of more than 6,000 hemophiliacs infected in United States. But in 2003 documents emerged showing that Cutter had continued to sell unheated blood products in markets outside the US until 1985, including in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Argentina, to offload a product they were unable to sell in Europe and the US; they also continued manufacturing the unheated product for several months. Bayer said it did this because some countries were doubtful about the efficacy of the new product.

Bayer has been involved in other controversies regarding its drug products. In the late 1990s it introduced a statin drug, Baycol (cerivastatin), but after 52 deaths were attributed to it, Bayer discontinued it in 2001. The side effect was rhabdomyolysis, causing renal failure, which occurred with a tenfold greater frequency in patients treated with Baycol in comparison to those prescribed alternate medications of the statin class. Trasylol (aprotinin), used to control bleeding during major surgery, was withdrawn from the market worldwide in 2007 when reports of increased mortality emerged; it was later re-introduced in Europe but not in the US.

Top 5 Recent Tweets

Date	Author	Comment
Aug 03, 2018	@Bayer	With the support of myAgro, smallholder farmer Fatou Faye purchased fertilizer to help grow her peanut plants. Now, her harvests are better than ever. Read the whole story in the Bayer magazine: https://www.magazine.bayer.com/en/a-text-message-against-hunger.aspx
Aug 02,2018	@Bayer	#Vectorcontrol helps control #ntds & #malaria. But what if #mosquitoes develop #insecticideresistance? Scientists at @inspmx @InstitutoGorgas & @IPKinstituto looked into this. Find out more in #publichealth magazine: https://www.publichealth.bayer.com/Magazine/Aedes_Resistance
Aug 01, 2018	@Bayer	Today is a special day! Exactly today 155 years ago the company „Friedr. Bayer et comp.“ was registered in the commercial register – our company was born. Here you can see a picture of the original document! #155YearsAnniversary https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Djhof2_XoAI8IL0.jpg:large
Aug 01, 2018	@Bayer	With only 0.5% of the world's supply being fresh and available for practical uses, our world is thirsty for new ideas. This is what scientists are doing to tackle the global crisis: http://bit.ly/2LQSY0x  #CanWeLiveBetter #Bayer
20 Nov, 2017	@Bayer	Prescription drugs such as treatments against #AIDS or #cancer are particularly lucrative for counterfeiter. #counterfeitdrugs #fakedrugs https://twitter.com/Bayer/status/932635987037118465
19 Nov, 2017	@Bayer	At Bayer, we believe that antibiotics are a valuable resource. And in the interest of human and animal health, antibiotics should always be used responsibly. Learn more about how we contribute to mitigating #AntibioticResistance: http://bit.ly/2zMFzOx  https://twitter.com/Bayer/status/932231996662628353
15 Nov, 2017	@Bayer	#BusinessNews: @Heiko_Schipper to join #Bayer Board of Management and head Consumer Health Division. http://www.press.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Heiko-Schipper-to-join-Bayer-Board-of-Management-and-head-Consumer-Health-Division … https://twitter.com/Bayer/status/930712511279755264
14 Nov, 2017	@Bayer	#Bayer ranks number 3 in an international ranking of the best and strongest company #brands, just behind Coca Cola and Hershey and ahead of Apple, Walt Disney and Microsoft. That was the outcome of an analysis carried out by the CoreBrand company: https://tenetpartners.com/top100/most-powerful-brands-list.html … https://twitter.com/Bayer/status/930429233985441792

Top 5 Lifetime News Headlines

3. https://in.reuters.com/article/bayer-consumer/bayer-taps-nestle-nutrition-head-to-lead-consumer-care-unit-idINF9N1N201V

4. https://in.reuters.com/article/us-loxo-oncology-bayer-deal/loxo-signs-lucrative-cancer-drug-deal-with-bayer-but-shares-fall-idINKBN1DE1MP

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