Bayer Buys Sterling OTC Business From SB

German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer has acquired Sterling Winthrop's North American over-the-counter medicines business from SmithKline Beecham. Bayer is making the acquisition through its US subsidiary Miles Laboratories and had previously indicated that such a move in the US OTC market was a priority (Marketletter September 5).

Bayer is paying $1 billion for the US and Canadian OTC businesses. The deal gives Bayer back the rights to use its trade name and the Bayer cross trade mark in the USA, something it has not been able to do for 75 years following the confiscation by the US government of the assets of German operations in the USA as "enemy property" after the first world war.

Sterling came out as owner of the Bayer assets, and since that time the two companies have been in negotiations which have resulted in various agreements regarding the Bayer name. Bayer has always been eager to regain the rights, and said that the acquisition ends a period "of confusion, controversy and conflict."