Sydney, 5 April 2024 – At its annual Pharma Media Day 2024 in Berlin, Bayer AG showcased the latest advancements from its Pharmaceuticals business to fuel long-term sustainable growth, and deliver more impactful healthcare solutions for more patients.
“We have made significant progress in growing our pipeline value, clearly demonstrating that our revised R&D strategy is bearing fruit,” said Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Management, Bayer AG and President of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. “At the same time, we are further expanding our leading positions in key therapeutic areas, making important progress and ensuring we are able to deliver our medicines to as many patients as possible.”
Specifically, the company has strengthened its innovation engine with a clear research focus on four core therapeutic areas (cardiovascular diseases, oncology, immunology and neurology & rare diseases), extended capabilities through collaborations and acquisitions of platform companies and increased the quality of its pipeline through rigorous portfolio pruning.
“We have been working diligently in Research & Development over the past 24 months and are making important progress in rebuilding a healthy pipeline,” said Christian Rommel, Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division and Head of Research and Development. “We will continue to drive this forward with a great sense of urgency, in particular by sustainably generating more innovative Investigational New Drug applications, by increasing the contributions from our platform companies and by mining for attractive new external partnerships or deals.”
Reimagining health for women
Bayer is investing in innovations to broaden the therapeutic options and raise the standard of care for menopausal women.
By 2030, the world population of women experiencing menopause is projected to increase to 1.2 billion, with 47 million new women entering this phase each year.1 Over one-third of menopausal women report severe symptoms, which can last 10 years or more after the last menstrual period, with relevant impact on their quality of life.2 Yet, around 30% of women consulting a healthcare professional due to moderate to severe symptoms were not prescribed any treatment.3
“Many women worldwide are suffering from vasomotor symptoms and sleep disturbances during their menopausal transition, symptoms which can strongly impact their quality of life,” said Cecilia Caetano, Head Global Medical Affairs Women’s Health at Bayer AG. “We are committed to advance science and break the silence by driving education, awareness and broadening treatment choices to support women across all stages of their lives.”
Delivering continued growth in oncology
As an emerging player in oncology, Bayer is focused on accelerating clinical development of novel precision cancer therapies, that could enable more personalized and targeted healthcare for patients.
“We have ramped up our precision oncology development capabilities to unlock the next generation of breakthrough therapies and build a strong, sustainable pipeline across the areas of tumor intrinsic pathways, immuno-oncology, and targeted radiotherapies,” said Dominik Ruettinger, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Research and Early Development for Oncology at Bayer AG. “Addressing high unmet medical needs in cancer care, we are striving to push the boundaries of innovation to provide patients with impactful medicines fitted to their personal needs.”
Next to cardiovascular diseases, cancer remains the leading cause of death worldwide and the numbers are set to rise.4 Observations indicate that the patient population with cancer is also changing, with more younger patients at first diagnosis and more patients being diagnosed at an earlier stage of their disease. These patients require both efficacious and “kinder”, better tolerated medicines, as well as therapies that are designed to overcome drug resistance.
Bayer has invested significantly in innovation targeted to these fields, focusing on expanding the pool of druggable targets*representing a true cancer vulnerability and accelerating the drug development process. With the acquisition of Vividion and its industry-leading chemoproteomics platform, Bayer has strengthened its pharmaceutical research and pipeline in the field of small molecules and precision therapeutics. Vividion’s innovative technology allows identification of previously unknown binding pockets on undruggable targets to generate novel drug candidates in indications with high unmet medical need.
Delivering on the promise of cell therapy and gene therapy
Cell therapies and gene therapies bring new, potentially transformative treatment approaches that could ultimately stop or reverse diseases with a once-in-a-lifetime intervention. Bayer’s continuous investments in the area – from early research through to enabling access through manufacturing capacities and platforms – emphasize the therapies’ significance as a key future growth-driver for the company and confirm Bayer’s commitment to translating this next-generation approach into tangible treatments for patients.
Bayer, together with its subsidiaries BlueRock and AskBio, is advancing an industry-leading preclinical and clinical cell therapy and gene therapy portfolio.
“Since 2020, Bayer has invested more than 5 billion AUD in the build-up of technology platforms for the discovery and development of cell therapies and gene therapies – two of the fastest growing fields in modern healthcare,” said Christian Rommel, Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division and Head of Research and Development. “We are excited about the important progress we are making in cell therapy and gene therapy. While our programs are still at an early stage, we hope that we will be able to translate them into meaningful benefit for patients in the future.”
New operating model driving efficiency and productivity to accelerate growth
With its new company-wide operating model, called Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), the company is becoming more mission-centric and value-focused. Guided by customer needs and empowered for rapid decision-making, small cross-functional teams with expertise from all relevant parts of the value chain drive product and customer excellence.
“The introduction of Dynamic Shared Ownership could not come at a better time for us in Pharma, as it will help us to identify business opportunities earlier and realize them faster while making more efficient use of our resources, thereby ultimately improving our long-term returns,” said Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Management, Bayer AG and President of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. “This is not only good news for us as a company, but also for the patients we serve as we hope to bring future innovations to life more efficiently and effectively moving forward.”
About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2023, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 79 billion AUD. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 9.6 billion AUD. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.au.
Bayer in ANZ
The company has had a presence in Australia since 1925 and has a long-term commitment to the health and nutrition of all Australians and New Zealanders. As people live longer and the population continues to grow both locally and beyond, Bayer is one of the few companies that takes a comprehensive view of these issues. Guided by our purpose – Science for a better life – we apply our global scientific expertise in healthcare and agriculture to deliver innovations locally to help people and the planet thrive. encourages its employees’ unique identities and advances a culture of inclusion and diversity across gender, LGBTQIA+, generations, disability and race.
For further information visit www.bayer.com.au
Contacts for media inquiries:
Women’s Health:
Katja Wiggers, phone +49 151 54339116
Email: katja.wiggers@bayer.com
Oncology:
Doreen Schroeder, phone +49 171 1480875
Email: doreen.schroeder@bayer.com
Cell therapies and gene therapies:
Nuria Aiguabella Font, phone +49 1732329691
Email: nuria.aiguabellafont@bayer.com
Research & Development:
Julia Schulze, phone +49 175 5866432
Email: julia.schulze@bayer.com
Cardiology:
Anne Jorgal, phone +49 175 3092137
Email: anne.jorgal@bayer.com
Ophthalmology:
Jutta Schulze, phone +49 175 3002905
Email: jutta.schulze@bayer.com
Radiology:
Simone Leyendecker, phone 49 174 9508190
Email: simone.leyendecker@bayer.com
Find more information at https://pharma.bayer.com/
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Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
Bayer Australia Pty Ltd, ABN 22 000 1 38 714, 875 Pacific Highway, Pymble NSW 2073.
Ph: (02) 9391 6000. Date of Preparation: March 2024 / COR-CON-AU-0070-1.