Bayer weighs merger options

Bayer AG, Wuppertal, Germany, indicated that it may be considering a merger with another major pharmaceutical company.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in June, Horst Meyer, the general manager of Bayer's pharmaceuticals business group, said the company wants to boost its global market share from its current state of 2.3% to more than 4%. The only way that the company can achieve this growth, Meyer told the Journal, is through "business combinations."

Despite achieving sales growth of 30% in the United States in 1997 - almost twice as much as the business group as a whole - Bayer did not move into the top 10 in industry ranking. It currently stands in twelfth place, behind Abbott Laboratories, according to Plymouth, PA-based IMS America.

In a recent press conference, Meyer indicated that marketing alliances are and will continue to be a standard way for Bayer to sell its products in North America.

The company's most significant alliances "involve the licensing of nisoldipine, a calcium antagonist, to Zeneca, and of miglitol, an antidiabetic drug, to Sanofi and Sanwa," Meyer said. Bayer also comarkets products with Smith-Kline Beecham and Fournier.

Meyer did not indicate whether one or several of these business partners was a possible candidate for a merger. PR