Research activities to focus on veterinary formulations and combinations to benefit both livestock and companion animals

Leverkusen/Auckland, September 6, 2013- Bayer HealthCare is increasing the research in Animal Health with expanded capacity at its Centre for Innovation and Development (CID) in Auckland, New Zealand. A new laboratory will expedite international research into the health and wellness of both farm and companion animals. The facility will focus on making animal medicines more effective by developing new formulations, and is staffed with a global team of 35 experts, analysts and technicians.

"Developing a new medicine for animals currently requires an investment of around 10 years and 100 million Euros(1)," said Dirk Ehle, Global Head of Bayer HealthCare's Animal Health Division. "Given the long and costly development process, it is important to fully utilize existing medicines through new formulations and novel combinations."

The Bayer HealthCare Centre for Innovation and Development in New Zealand is responsible for important contributions to the animal health field, especially in the areas of mastitis control, reproduction and metabolic health management.

"In the past year, this site has generated Tylofen, the first mastitis treatment to be combined with pain relief to support both the wellness and welfare of dairy herds," said Derek Bartlett, Country Division Head of Bayer HealthCare, Animal Health, New Zealand. "And in the pet care segment, the launch of Hyper-T, a transdermal treatment for hyperthyroidism in cats has saved both owners and cats the daily stress of tablet administration."

"This new laboratory represents Bayer's continued commitment to developing new veterinary solutions," explains Dr. Douglas Hutchens, Chief Veterinary Officer and Head of Global Development for Bayer HealthCare's Animal Health Division. "By expanding the work of the Centre for Innovation and Development, we are investing in developments that will benefit veterinarians and farmers globally."

About Research and Development in Animal Health
New animal health medicines must successfully complete the key phases of discovery, development, and registration before being commercialized. The discovery process includes the identification of molecules, in vitro testing for potency, metabolism and biopharmaceutical properties, and studies on efficacy, safety and pharmokinetics. In the development phase, the formulation is developed, and the dose titration, pharmacokinetics and safety are futher reviewed. For farm animals, human food safety studies are performed to examine toxicology and residue standards. In the registration phase, clinical trials are performed - including long term target animal safety studies and complete human food safety studies - before a new drug application can be submitted to the respective government authority. Once the product is on the market, it is continually monitoried through a comprehensive pharmacovigilance system.

About Bayer HealthCare's Centre for Innovation and Development in New Zealand
The Animal Health Research Centre is made up ofveterinarians, pharmacists, pharmacologists, analytical chemists, regulatory affairs experts, patent attorneys and statisticians. It has four functional units: Formulation and Development; Regulatory Affairs for New Zealand and Asia Pacific; Intellectual Property and Clinical Studies. Each of these areas is brought together through project management to deliver new or improved products. With the expanded capabilities, CID looks forward to creating value for our customers and remaining an integral part of the global product development team.

About Bayer HealthCare
The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subgroup of Bayer AG with annual sales of EUR 18.6 billion (2012), is one of the world's leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany. The company combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Medical Care and Pharmaceuticals divisions. Bayer HealthCare's aim is to discover, develop, manufacture and market products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. Bayer HealthCare has a global workforce of 55,300 employees (Dec 31, 2012) and is represented in more than 100 countries. More information at www.healthcare.bayer.com.

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Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

1) http://www.ahi.org/about-animal-medicines/industry-statistics/
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/UCM272573.pdf

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