Bayer strives to improve lives with innovative products(2)

New treatment options

Dekkers listed a number of important pharmaceutical products as examples.

Anticoagulant Xarelto, for instance, helps prevent an estimated two out of every three strokes compared with patients who take no anticoagulant medication. "This not only impacts the patient's life, but that of his or her family," Dekkers said.

New therapies made possible by Bayer products also include improving failing vision that accompanies some eye diseases with Eylea, inhibiting tumor growth in certain types of cancer with Stivarga and Xofigo, and improving the lives of people with certain lung diseases with Adempas.

These five products alone have an annual peak sales potential of at least 7.5 billion euros, according to Dekkers.

"The success of our recent product introductions has created great growth momentum for us," he added.

Bayer's pharmaceutical pipeline currently contains 57 projects, of which 20 are in phase I clinical testing, 19 in phase II and 18 in phase III.

Among these projects are five new, promising active ingredient candidates, which should be ready by 2015 for a decision on advancement to phase III.

Increasing crop yields

Dekkers said that crop science products also made people's lives easier.

For instance, the fungicide Luna supports the safe control of fungal infections in various fruit and vegetable varieties, such as powdery mildew and storage rot.

Adengo, a herbicide for corn, controls several grasses and weeds. Corn is not only indispensable as animal feed but is in many everyday foods on our tables. Innovative herbicides like Adengo are therefore important for feeding the growing global population.

"Like in the pharmaceutical business, new products are also very important in the agricultural business," Dekkers said. During the next few years, the research and development pipeline for crop protection and seeds and traits should produce new market innovations.

Depending on approvals from the regulatory authorities, Dekkers estimated the annual peak sales potential for products introduced to the market between 2011 and 2016 would be a minimum of 4 billion euros.

Human, animal and plant research

In the future, Bayer wants to exploit synergies in the fields of human, animal and plant health, explained Malik.

In the course of evolution, the processes inside living organisms have remained surprisingly similar. One aspect shared by all organisms is that their genetic information is stored in the form of DNA.

While people, animals and plants differ considerably in appearance, the differences in their underlying "blueprints" are not all that dramatic. In the human population, 99.5 to 100 percent of all genes are identical. Only minimal sequence differences exist, which make people unique.

Humans even share more than 90 percent of their DNA with cats and as much as half with fruit flies. The almost 20 percent of genes that humans have in common with plants offer new starting points for research projects, which are developed in interdisciplinary collaborations within the Bayer Group in the areas of common mechanisms of action and platform technologies.

One research project dealing with energy production in cells has already shown initial success. It started with three new product families for treating fungal infections in plants (fungicides).

A team of researchers used them as a basis for developing the new nematicide Velum/Verango, which protects crops against nematodes in the soil and was launched in the market this year.

Infection with a wide variety of worm species is also a problem in livestock and pets, so animal health researchers are trying to identify potential active ingredients with the same action mechanism.

It was also discovered that this method of energy production in cells may also be relevant in the growth of cancer cells.

Bayer researchers succeeded in demonstrating in vitro that specific types of melanoma react sensitively to the inhibition of the mitochondrial energy supply. "This is a perfect example of the synergies among the life sciences," Malik said.

Another building block of Bayer's innovation activities is external partnerships.

Malik pointed out that the company's health care and crop science maintain some 850 partnerships worldwide.