Bayer

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Bayer_04_Leverkusen :: Bayern

For other uses, see Bayer (disambiguation).

Bayer AG (German pronunciation "BYE-er", in US usually pronounced "BAY-er") (, ) is a German chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in 1863. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is well-known for its original brand of aspirin.

About Bayer AG

In order to separate operational and strategic management Bayer AG was reorganized into a holding company in December 2003. The group's core businesses were transformed into limited companies, each controlled by Bayer AG. These companies are: Bayer CropScience AG; Bayer HealthCare AG; Bayer Material Science AG and Bayer Chemicals AG and the three service companies Bayer Technology Services GmbH, Bayer Business Services GmbH and Bayer Industry Services GmbH & Co. OHG.

Following Bayer's successful reorganization, its chemicals activities (with the exception of H.C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode) have been combined with certain components of the polymers segment to form the new company LANXESS. This change took place on July 1, 2004, with LANXESS to be listed on the stock exchange by the beginning of 2005.

Bayer AG shares are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bayer is governed by a board of management, consisting of: Klaus Kühn, Udo Oels, Richard Pott, and Werner Wenning.

On March 13, 2006, Merck KGaA announced a €14.6bn bid for Schering. The offer document is due to be issued in early April 2006. Merck's takeover bid was surpassed by Bayer's $19.5B white-knight bid for Schering on March 23, 2006.

History

Bayer AG was founded in Germany in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer and his partner, Johann Friedrich Weskott.

Bayer's first major product was acetylsalicylic acid, a modification of salicylic acid or salicin, a folk remedy found in the bark of the willow. By 1899, Bayer's trademark Aspirin was registered worldwide for Bayer's brand of acetylsalicylic acid, but through the widespread use to describe all brands of the compound, and Bayer's inability to protect its trademark (mainly where its assets were confiscated during World War I), the word "aspirin" lost its trademark status in the United States and some other countries. It is now widely used in the US for all brands of the drug. However in some other countries, such as Canada, Germany, and Switzerland it is still a registered trademark of Bayer.

In 1904, Bayer introduced the Bayer cross as its corporate logo, consisting of the horizontal word "BAYER" crossed with the vertical word "BAYER", both words sharing the "Y". Because Bayer's aspirin was sold through pharmacists and doctors only, and could not put their own packaging on the drug, the Bayer cross was imprinted on the actual tablets, so that customers would associate Bayer with its asprin.

As part of the reparations after World War I, Bayer had its assets, including rights to its name and trademarks, confiscated in the United States, Canada, and several other countries. In the United States and Canada, Bayer's assets and trademarks were acquired by Sterling Drug, a predecessor of Sterling Winthrop.

Bayer became part of IG Farben, a conglomerate of German chemical industries which formed the financial core of the Nazi regime. IG Farben owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B, a chemical used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. When the Allies split IG Farben after World War II for involvement in several Nazi war crimes, Bayer reappeared as an individual business.

In 1978, Bayer purchased Miles Laboratories and its subsidiaries Miles Canada and Cutter Laboratories (along with a product line including Alka-Seltzer, Flintstones Vitamins and One-A-Day Vitamins, and Cutter insect repellent). In 1994, Bayer AG purchased Sterling Winthrop's over the counter drug business from SmithKline Beecham and merged it with Miles Laboratories, thereby reacquiring the U.S. trademark rights to "Bayer" and the Bayer cross.

Bayer has discovered, among others:

Aspirin — a pain reliever, arguably the most successful drug ever
Heroin (diacetylmorphine) — an addictive drug, originally sold as a cough treatment, and arguably the most successful illegal drug ever. Heroin was a Bayer trademark, until Bayer let it lapse.
Methadone
Mustard gas — a blister-causing chemical weapon
Tabun — a nerve agent
Ciprofloxacin — an antibiotic used to treat anthrax
Levitra — a treatment for Erectile Dysfunction
Polyurethane — a very versatile polymer for a wide variety of applications
Polycarbonate — the material of the CD, Lego etc. (Makrolon)

Bayer CropScience

In 2002 Bayer AG acquired Aventis CropScience and formed Bayer CropScience. The company is now one of the world's leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. In addition to conventional agrochemical business it is involved in genetic engineering of food.

Controversy

See main article Imidacloprid effects on bee population

Bayer AG is involved in an ongoing controversy with French and Nova Scotian beekeepers over claimed pesticide kills of honeybees from its seed treatment insecticide imidacloprid. France has since issued a provisional ban on the use of Imidacloprid for corn seed treatment pending further action. A consortium of U.S. beekeepers has also filed a civil suit against Bayer CropScience for alleged losses.

Austrian journalist Klaus Werner alleged in his Black Book on Brand Companies, that the Bayer subsidiary H.C. Starck financed the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo by trading illegally with the mineral coltan. The allegations were also reveiwed by a U.N. panel of experts, but specific claims against Starck since 2001 could not be proven.

A cite from http://www.haemophilia-litigation.com/, access date 31.05.2006:

"After 1978, there were four major companies in the United States engaged in the manufacture, production and sale of Factor VIII and IX: Armour Pharmaceutical Company, Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter Healthcare Corporation and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation, which have been or are defendants in certain lawsuits.

The plaintiffs allege that the companies manufactured and sold blood factor products as beneficial "medicines" that were, in fact, contaminated with HIV and/or HCV and resulted in the mass infection and/or deaths of thousands of haemophiliacs worldwide.

It is believed that three of these companies, Alpha, Baxter and Cutter, recruited and paid donors from high risk populations, including prisoners, intravenous drug users, and blood centers with predominantly homosexual donors, to obtain blood plasma used for the production of Factor VIII and IX. Plaintiffs allege that these companies failed to exclude donors, as mandated by federal law, with a history of viral hepatitis. Such testing could have substantially reduced the likelihood of plasma containing HIV and/ or HCV entering plasma pools."

Diversity

Bayer was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.

External links

http://www.bayer.com/
http://www.bayercropscience.com/
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/index2.html Coalition against BAYER-Dangers
Leverkusen-Guide
Bayer AG at Knowmore.org Wiki