Bayer AG

What they do

Bayer AG operates in three businesses: prescription pharmaceuticals, consumer health products such as over-the-counter medicines and supplements, and crop science, which covers seeds, crop protection and plant biotechnology. Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott founded the company in Barmen, now part of Wuppertal, in 1863 as a dyestuffs maker. Its headquarters are in Leverkusen on the Rhine.

Why it matters

Bayer is one of the companies that turned nineteenth-century German chemistry into modern medicine. On 10 August 1897, in the Elberfeld laboratory, the chemist Felix Hoffmann produced acetylsalicylic acid in a pure, stable form, and on 6 March 1899 Bayer registered the Aspirin trademark in Berlin. The credit for the invention is disputed: the chemist Arthur Eichengrün later claimed he had directed the work, and some historians support him. Aspirin went on to become one of the most widely used medicines in the world.

Products to know

• Aspirin: acetylsalicylic acid, registered as a trademark in 1899.
• Pharmaceuticals: medicines in cardiology, oncology and women's health.
• Crop Science: seeds and crop protection, enlarged by the Monsanto acquisition.

The German angle

Bayer's history mirrors the arc of German industry. It was part of the IG Farben conglomerate from 1925 until the group was broken up after the Second World War, a period that includes involvement in Nazi-era crimes. Since 2018 the company has been reshaped by its acquisition of the US seed group Monsanto, which made it a global leader in agriculture but brought extensive litigation over the weedkiller Roundup. The decisions it makes now will shape one of Germany's largest research-based companies.