Bayer is a major, multinational chemical and life science company. It has locations in 79 countries, with a large presence in Europe. The company is divided into several branches, including the pharmaceuticals, crop science, and consumer health divisions. Through its consumer health division, Bayer produces many nonprescription drugs , including such brand names as Aleve, Alka-Seltzer, and Claritin. Bayer’s headquarters are in Leverkusen, Germany, north of Cologne.
The German businessmen Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott founded the company in 1863 in Barmen, now a district in the city of Wuppertal, Germany. The company was originally called “Friedr. Bayer et comp.” Bayer and Weskott used substances from coal tar to synthesize chemical dyes for the textile industry.
In 1878, Bayer built a laboratory for developing dyes and pharmaceuticals. It was at this laboratory that the chemist Felix Hoffmann developed a new way to synthesize acetylsalicylic acid, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Bayer named the drug aspirin , and began marketing it to doctors and pharmacists in 1899. Today, aspirin is one of the world’s most commonly used medicines. Aspirin helps relieve pain, lowers fever arising from infections, and helps reduce inflammation due to illness or injury.
Hoffmann also resynthesized (remade) diacetlymorphine, an opioid , at the Bayer laboratory. An opioid is any drug made from or containing opium and other synthetic or semi-synthetic drugs that have a similar chemical structure. Diacetylmorphine had first been synthesized from morphine years earlier. In 1898, Bayer began marketing diacetylmorphine as a cough and pain medicine under the brand name heroin . However, the dangers of this habit-forming drug soon became clear, and Bayer ended their production of heroin in 1913.
By the onset of World War I (1914-1918), Bayer had grown into an international chemical company. Bayer produced explosives and other weapons for Germany during the war. In the aftermath of the war, Bayer was forced to give up its trademark, patents, and name as part of Germany’s reparations (government efforts to make up for wrongdoings). In 1925, the company became part of I. G. Farben, a collection of German companies with related interests. During World War II (1939-1945), I. G. Farben used forced laborers at many facilities, including one site built next to Auschwitz , the largest concentration camp run by Nazi Germany. After the war, allied forces broke up I. G. Farben into separate daughter companies. This allowed Bayer to reenter the pharmaceuticals marketplace and regain a high level of productivity.
In the decades after World War II, Bayer began to manufacture such biotechnological products as factor VIII (a treatment for hemophilia) and birth control products. Today, Bayer also produces genetically modified (GM) crops such as cotton and soybeans. These plants can grow faster and larger than non-GM plants, and they are more resistant to pests, diseases, and herbicide. In 2018, Bayer purchased Monsanto , a major agricultural biotechnology company, and retired the Monsanto name.
