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Bayer - an inventor company - has been at the forefront of scientific and technological development for well over 100 years. It’s crammed with scientists, as well as colleagues whose job it is to communicate the company’s scientific achievements to an ever-changing world. Without these two complimentary skills, we risk missing the point of how essential science really is to our quality of life. Fail to present science as the fascinating and dynamic subject that it is, and we fail to create the next generation of scientists, who will come to work for companies like ours, and achieve great things. Bayer wants to keep the science talent pool as rich and full as possible, and we believe that good communication of science is absolutely That’s why Bayer is proud to support these awards - putting its faith in tomorrow’s scientists, tomorrow’s science, and those who will tell the About Bayer - Science for a Better Life Bayer is the Inventor Company, with a firm focus on product and technology innovations. It aims to prevent, diagnose, relieve and cure illness, provide a healthy and adequate food supply for the world’s growing population, and to improve our quality of life through an active involvement in communication, mobility, home and sport products. Bayer’s extensive research and development is already aimed at tomorrow, and the day after as well. Plant biotechnology, for example, offers completely new opportunities for manufacturing pharmaceutical active substances and deriving the starting materials for high quality products and special plastics. Bayer is also exploring nanotechnology, for example, to develop intelligent materials such as self-healing coatings or scratch-resistant, self-cleaning plastic surfaces. The company began over 130 years ago, producing dyestuffs for a burgeoning textiles and fashion industry. Not long after, it branched into pharmaceuticals and, just before the dawn of the twentieth century, patented Aspirin - a true wonder drug, whose curative powers are being extended still, after a century of success. Since then, Bayer has filed thousands of patents in the areas of medicine, agriculture and performance materials, and is a world leading science company, with a turnover of some £20 million, and nearly 100,000 employees in over 120 countries.
Here’s some interesting facts, plus a few of Bayer’s many achievements in science... In the developing world, Bayer is helping the fight against malaria with the innovative development of mosquito nets impregnated with insecticides based on pyrethrum, a toxin that occurs naturally in chrysanthemums. A solvent-free polyurea interior coating, based on the aliphatic coating Desmodur® N from Bayer Material Science is helping in the UK water industry’s fight against leakage from its underground water supply system - parts of which still date back to the Victorian era. In a piece of “Trenchless Technology”, pipes are being renovated from the inside by robot-spraying a new coating in an operation so fast that water can be flowing again on the day of the repair. Around a third of all the word’s CDs, CD-ROMs and DVDs are made form the Bayer polycarbonate Makrolon. Babies’ bottles, car headlamps and sunglasses are also made from the same material. Bayer invented Aspirin - the wonder drug of the twentieth century - in 1899. More than a century later, new applications are still being found. The key ingredient of aspirin - acetylsalicylic acid - occurs naturally in the bark of the willow tree. A major goal of crop protection research is to develop agrochemical products that selectively repel pests and fungal diseases yet spare other parts of the biosystem. At its Berkeley/USA site, Bayer manufactures the drug, Kogenate® with the genetically produced active ingredient Factor VIII for treating haemophilia. Laboratories must be dust- and microbe-free during manufacture and personnel must therefore wear protective clothing. Bayer spends €1.9 billion on research and development a year - that’s more than €5 million every day! Polyurethane - the essential building block of so many current products - was invented in 1937...coincidentally, by a scientist called Otto Bayer! The first sports car made from plastics (except for the engine, transmission and wheels) was displayed at the International Plastics Fair in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1967. DNA - the building block of life - was discovered in 1869. It was a further 75 years before DNA was identified as a carrier of genetic information. Nine years later in 1953, the actual structure of DNA was discovered, by Watson and Crick. The cost of pharmaceutical research is second only to the cost of aerospace development. The early beginnings of Bayer were driven by fashion. Aniline dyestuffs (blue and violet) came from coal tar, and led the fashion world. Then green became fashionable in the Victorian era ... the challenge to produce a red dye that didn’t fade was particularly hard. Only later was it discovered that the by products from these processes could be used to make - pharmaceuticals. Kaiser Wilhelm was the first person to have rubber tyres fitted to his car - in 1910. The Bayer plastic Baytron P significantly improves the life of light-emitting diodes. Originally Baytron P was developed as a transparent, electrically-conducting polymer intended for use as an antistatic for protecting, for example, TV screens from dust..
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