Pharmaceuticals & Consumer Health – a strong player on the Chinese health care market
Bayer’s health care business in China goes back to 1936, when the company began producing Aspirin in Shanghai. In November 1997, what was then known as the Pharmaceuticals Business Group started the production of pharmaceuticals in Beijing. Today, a wide range of products are manufactured and Bayer is among China’s largest and fastest-growing health care companies.
Bayer HealthCare China is made up of three divisions: Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Care and Animal Health. Represented in more than 70 cities, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals offers a product line covering general medicine, women’s health, neurology, cardiology, hematology, men’s health and diagnostic imaging. In June 2011, the headquarters of the global primary care business was relocated to Beijing.
Bayer operates a modern production facility for a number of pharmaceutical products in Beijing and a site in Guangzhou. An expansion program quadrupled production capacity in 2008. In the same year, Bayer HealthCare acquired the over-the-counter(OTC) cough and cold portfolio of the Chinese company Topsun Science and Technology QidongGaitianli Pharmaceutical. This acquisition greatly strengthened Bayer’s presence in China, which is also one of the world’s fastest-growing OTC markets.
In the field of animal health, BHC offers a number of veterinary products, feed additives and aquaculture products, which it manufactures in Chengdu.
In early 2009, Bayer established a global research and development center in Beijing, the company's fourth such center worldwide. The center focuses on phase I to phase III trials in China and the Asia/Pacific region. These trials form an integral part of Bayer HealthCare’s global development programs. Around 120 employees concentrate on substances in the current pharmaceutical pipeline and on in-licensed assets which are designated for the Asian markets.
In addition, Bayer HealthCare also actively works with external partners including research and academic institutions such as the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Tsinghua University – with which Bayer is cooperating to discover new disease-related targets in the core areas of Bayer’s pharmaceutical research –, or the 301 Hospital in Beijing in the area of women’s health care. Bayer also cooperates with the National Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Center (NPERC) in Shanghai in a Ph.D. research program in the area of biodegradable polymers using the technology platform developed at NPERC.
Crop protection products from Hangzhou for Asia and America America
To achieve sustainable economic and social progress, China needs to ensure reliable food supplies for its more than 1.3 billion citizens. This is where Bayer CropScience has an important role to play. Bayer CropScience China Co. Ltd operates a modern production site – China's first agrochemical joint venture – in Hangzhou, manufacturing a variety of crop protection products for China, Asia and North and Latin America. Bayer CropScience has launched 40 products in China over the past 10 years.
The company endeavors to expand its market position through customer loyalty programs specially developed for China. The “Food Chain Partnership” program targets all partners in the agricultural sector who are involved in the supply of food, working together with them to strengthen the integrated value chain. Partners include international companies such as Wal-Mart and Metro. In addition, Bayer runs a number of educational programs, including the AgriCare project and various cooperative programs with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. These projects also train Chinese farmers in modern crop management and growing methods.