At its recent virtual media event on January 13th 2021, Bayer presented exciting progress in transforming its pharmaceutical business with breakthrough innovation in healthcare that will significantly help patients suffering from conditions that are currently still difficult to treat. The company has recently heavily invested in external innovation with an unprecedented number of more than 25 collaboration agreements and acquisitions.

"The biomedical and technological revolution that is transforming healthcare at an unprecedented pace is taking place now. Our company is at the forefront of the wave of innovation in cell and gene therapy as well as digital health," said Stefan Oelrich, member of the board of management, Bayer AG and president of Bayer's pharmaceuticals division. "We are driving this transformation and growing our promising development portfolio together with our partners. Our joint goal is to bring breakthrough treatments to patients and make healthcare systems more sustainable in the mid-and long-term."

At this event, speakers from Bayer, its partners and leading experts demonstrated under the theme "Transforming Healthcare. Transforming Bayer" how the company is committed to transforming patient health by fulfilling its strategic ambition in the areas of cell and gene therapy, digital health and by driving forward the company's promising development portfolio.

Cell and Gene Therapy: Accelerating breakthrough innovation for patients

Cell and gene therapies offer for the first time the possibility to address the root cause of disease, providing options for conditions considered intractable or where the current standard of care only addresses symptoms to different degrees. Bayer's increasing investments in the field are consolidating the company's emerging leadership and confirm its strategic significance as a growth-driver for its pharmaceutical business.

Bayer has just established a new Cell and Gene Therapy Platform. This platform steers Bayer's strategy in the area and orchestrates all activities along the value chain providing an innovation ecosystem for all partners, such as, BlueRock Therapeutics. Bayer's development portfolio of cell and gene therapies already comprises seven advanced assets in different stages of clinical development.

"Together with our partners, we want to accelerate innovation at its source and along the whole value chain to ensure a fast translation of science into therapies for patients who have no time to wait," said Wolfram Carius, executive vice-president and head of cell and gene therapy at Bayer.

Growing a robust pipeline: New approaches for unmet medical needs

Bayer is continuing to build a strong development pipeline advancing more than 50 projects through the clinic with a focus on cardiovascular diseases, oncology and women's health. The company highlighted two promising pipeline programs in mid-stage development demonstrating medical innovation at Bayer.

As an innovation leader in cardiovascular diseases with deep disease understanding and a long history of successful drug development, Bayer is particularly strong in the field of anticoagulation. Heart attack and stroke still represent a major health burden and new, more effective treatment options in thrombosis prevention are needed. The company is advancing a promising mid-stage program of Factor XI (FXI)-targeting compounds, a new class of anticoagulants, comprising of three investigational assets.

With its P2X3 multi-indication program, Bayer highlighted another important candidate in mid-stage development. At Bayer, the promise of P2X3 antagonists was first identified for endometriosis. Endometriosis is a clinical condition affecting approximately 10 percent of women in reproductive age, many of whom experience severe chronic pain with debilitating effects on their professional, personal and social lives. P2X3 also has a prominent role in several other medical conditions associated with pain and neurogenic hypersensitivity such as chronic cough, overactive bladder and neuropathic pain.

At the same time, the company is also successfully delivering on its late-stage pipeline in the areas of oncology and cardiovascular disease including also a number of potential blockbuster products.

"Positioning Bayer as a leader in the highly dynamic space of healthcare innovation, we will continue to lead the field in bringing new solutions to patients who need them," said Stefan Oelrich.