Bayer AG is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include: pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, seeds and biotechnology products. The company is a component of the EURO STOXX 50 stock market index.
Headquarters in Leverkusen
Share of Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Comp in Elberfeld, issued 1 May 1908
Bayer cross, Leverkusen
Bottle of Bayer aspirin, 1899
The pharmaceutical industry is an industry in medicine that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients, with the aim to cure and prevent diseases, or alleviate symptoms. Pharmaceutical companies may deal in generic or brand medications and medical devices. They are subject to a variety of laws and regulations that govern the patenting, testing, safety, efficacy using drug testing and marketing of drugs. The global pharmaceuticals market produced treatments worth $1,228.45 billion in 2020 and showed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.8%.
A drug manufacturer inspection by the US Food and Drug Administration
Diethylbarbituric acid was the first marketed barbiturate. It was sold by Bayer under the trade name Veronal.
In 1937 over 100 people died after ingesting a solution of the antibacterial sulfanilamide formulated in the toxic solvent diethylene glycol.
Percent surviving by age in 1900, 1950, and 1997
