Bayer looking for Euro pharma partner?

Bayer AG is looking for a European partner in order to give its healthcare business a much-needed boosts, according to comments made by chairman Manfred Schneider to the US CNBC news service. Dr Schneider said that setting up a joint venture with a European drugmaker is more feasible than finding a partner in the USA, as "American pharmaceutical companies are too big for us." Bayer has always maintained that it intends to retain a majority stake in any such venture.

The future of the group's health care business has been a major talking point since the withdrawal of its cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol/Lipobay (cerivastatin; Marketletters passim). More recently, Bayer announced that it will transfer its current health care business segment into an independent corporate unit (Marketletter September 17) in a move that would facilitate any sell-off or partnership deal that may be considered, and will lead to 1,250 jobs being cut at its pharmaceutical division.

Once the reorganization of the division is completed - dividing it up into pharmaceuticals, consumer care, diagnostics and biological products - the new unit will have total sales of 10 billion euros ($9.17 billion). Dr Schneider said that "there is no doubt that this company will have the critical mass required to ensure that it can hold the majority interest and provide the operational management in a possible future partnership."