The FINANCIAL -- The Bayer Group will be celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2013 with numerous events around the world.
"Bayer can look back on a long and highly successful history as an inventor company," explains CEO Dr. Marijn Dekkers. "What started as a small but innovative dyestuffs factory in the Barmen district of Wuppertal is now a global enterprise with more than 110,000 employees. In the past 150 years, Bayer inventions have time and again helped improve people's quality of life. This great tradition is also our commitment to the future - entirely in line with our mission of Bayer: Science For A Better Life." To mark the anniversary, Bayer is planning a series of events and projects worldwide throughout the coming year. These will focus on the company’s employees and their families - but neighbors, customers, partners and the scientific community are also to be included in the celebrations.
"Bayer products have become indispensable to our lives," says Dekkers. One example is the pain reliever Aspirin, which came on the market in 1899 and remains one of Bayer's top products to this day. Over the decades, Bayer's researchers have developed pioneering active substances to treat infectious, tropical and cardiovascular diseases, for example. Today, pharmaceuticals research at Bayer HealthCare concentrates mainly on the fields of cardiology and hematology, oncology, women’s healthcare and diagnostic imaging.
A further focal point of Bayer research is agriculture. When Bayer started selling Antinonnin, the world's first synthetic insecticide to control the nun moth, in 1892, it was the start of a success story. Today,Bayer CropScience is a global leader in its field. This success is based on innovations - not only chemical and biological crop protection products that offer sustainable solutions, but also high-quality seed. Added to this is a broad range of products and services for home and garden and forestry applications.
As Bayer AG announced, in the area of high-performance materials, the polyurethanes for foams discovered in the 1930s and the high-performance polycarbonate that was patented in 1953 form the basis for an ever-expanding range of applications. Today, high-performance materials from Bayer MaterialScience make an important contribution to conserving fossil resources. Polyurethanes, for example, are used to insulate buildings and thus reduce the amount of energy used in heating or cooling. Lightweight materials help make cars lighter, thereby cutting their fuel consumption. It is thanks to the invention of aliphatic polyurethane coatings that assets can be preserved for longer than ever before. Modern coating systems can withstand both wind and weather and put a shine on cars, ships, rail vehicles and wind turbines.