about the chemical and pharmaceutical company . for other uses see bayer disambiguation . bayer ag type aktiengesellschaft traded as fwb bayn industry pharmaceuticals chemicals founded 1 august 1863 ; 153 years ago 1863 08 01 1 founder friedrich bayer johann friedrich weskott headquarters leverkusen germany key people werner baumann ceo werner wenning chairman of the supervisory board products veterinary drugs diagnostic imaging general and specialty medicines women s health products over the counter drugs diabetes care pesticides plant biotechnology revenue 46.324 billion 2015 2 operating income 6.250 billion 2015 2 profit 4.110 billion 2015 2 total assets 73.917 billion end 2015 3 total equity 25.445 billion end 2015 3 number of employees 116 800 fte 2015 2 subsidiaries bayer corporation bayer schering pharma bayer healthcare pharmaceuticals bayer cropscience website www.bayer.com bayer ag ba r ; german pronunciation ba is a german multinational chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in barmen today a part of wuppertal germany in 1863 . it is headquartered in leverkusen north rhine westphalia germany where its illuminated sign is a landmark . bayer s primary areas of business include human and veterinary pharmaceuticals ; consumer healthcare products ; agricultural chemicals and biotechnology products ; and high value polymers . the company is a component of the euro stoxx 50 stock market index . 4 bayer s first and best known product was aspirin ; there is a dispute about what scientist at bayer made the most important contributions to it arthur eichengr n or felix hoffmann . bayer trademarked the name heroin for the drug diacetylmorphine and marketed it as a cough suppressant and non addictive substitute for morphine from 1898 to 1910 . bayer also introduced phenobarbital prontosil the first widely used antibiotic and the subject of the 1939 nobel prize in medicine the antibiotic cipro ciprofloxacin and yaz drospirenone birth control pills . in 2014 bayer bought merck s consumer business with brands such as claritin coppertone and dr. scholl s. its bayercropscience business develops genetically modified crops and pesticides . its materials science division makes polymers like polyurethanes and polycarbonate . in 1925 bayer became part of ig farben the world s largest chemical company . following the nazi takeover of germany ig farben was embroiled in the nazi regime s policies as a large government contractor . after world war ii bayer was reestablished as an independent company and quickly regained its position as one of the world s largest chemical and pharmaceutical corporations . bayer has been involved in controversies regarding some of its drug products ; its statin drug baycol cerivastatin was discontinued in 2001 after 52 people died from renal failure and trasylol aprotinin used to control bleeding during major surgery was withdrawn from the markets worldwide when reports of increased mortality emerged ; it was later re introduced in europe but not in the us . heroin which bayer had introduced as specified above is now a schedule i controlled substance in nearly all nations . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 aspirin 1.3 heroin 1.4 phenobarbital 1.5 prior to world war ii 1.6 world war ii 1.7 post world war ii 1.8 2000s corporate divisions 1.9 acquisition history 2 corporate structure 2.1 bayer cropscience 2.2 bayer consumer health 2.3 bayer pharmaceuticals 2.4 bayer animal health 2.5 bayer business services 2.6 defunct business units 3 products 3.1 current 3.1.1 pharmaceutical 3.1.2 agricultural 4 bayer 04 leverkusen 5 chemical accident 6 awards and recognition 7 see also 8 notes and references 9 further reading 10 external links history edit early history edit bayer ag was founded in barmen today a part of wuppertal germany in 1863 by friedrich bayer and his partner johann friedrich weskott . 1 bayer kreuz leverkusen the company s corporate logo the bayer cross was introduced in 1904 . it consists of the horizontal word bayer crossed with the vertical word bayer both words sharing the y and enclosed in a circle . 5 51 an illuminated version of the logo is a landmark in leverkusen the location of bayer ag s headquarters . 6 aspirin edit bayer s first major product was acetylsalicylic acid originally discovered by french chemist charles frederic gerhardt in 1853 a modification of salicylic acid or salicin a folk remedy found in the bark of the willow plant . 7 8 by 1899 bayer s trademark aspirin was registered worldwide for bayer s brand of acetylsalicylic acid but aspirin lost its trademark status in the united states france and the united kingdom because of the confiscation of bayer s us assets and trademarks during world war i by the united states and the subsequent widespread usage of the word to describe all brands of the compound . 9 it is now widely used in the us uk and france for all brands of the drug . however it is still a registered trademark of bayer in more than 80 other countries including canada mexico germany and switzerland . as of 2011 approximately 40 thousand tons of aspirin are produced each year and 10 to 20 billion tablets are taken in the u.s. alone each year for prevention of cardiovascular events . 10 it is on the who model list of essential medicines the most important medications needed in a basic health system . 11 there has been controversy over the roles played by bayer scientists in the development of aspirin . arthur eichengr n a bayer chemist claimed to be the first to discover an aspirin formulation which did not have the unpleasant side effects of nausea and gastric pain . eichengr n also claimed that he invented the name aspirin and was the first person to use the new formulation to test its safety and efficacy . bayer contends that aspirin was discovered by felix hoffmann to alleviate the sufferings of his father who had arthritis . various sources support the conflicting claims . 12 13 most mainstream historians attribute the invention of aspirin to felix hoffmann and or arthur eichengr n. 14 15 heroin edit bayer heroin bottle heroin diacetylmorphine now illegal as an addictive drug was trademarked and marketed by bayer as a cough suppressant and non addictive substitute for morphine from 1898 to 1910 . 16 bayer scientists were not the first to make heroin but their scientists discovered ways to make it and bayer led commercialization of heroin . 17 heroin was a bayer trademark until after world war i. 18 phenobarbital edit in 1903 bayer licensed the patent for the hypnotic drug diethylbarbituic acid from its inventors emil fischer and joseph von mering . it was marketed under the trade name veronal as a sleep aid beginning in 1904 . systematic investigations of the effect of structural changes on potency and duration of action at bayer led to the discovery of phenobarbital in 1911 and the discovery of its potent anti epileptic activity in 1912 . phenobarbital was among the most widely used drugs for the treatment of epilepsy through the 1970s and as of 2014 remains on the world health organization s list of essential medications . 19 20 prior to world war ii edit as part of the reparations after world war i bayer assets including the rights to its name and trademarks were confiscated in the united states canada and several other countries . 1 in the united states and canada bayer s assets and trademarks were acquired by sterling drug a predecessor of sterling winthrop . in 1994 bayer ag purchased sterling winthrop s over the counter drug business from smithkline beecham and merged it with miles laboratories thereby reclaiming the u.s. and canadian trademark rights to bayer and the bayer cross as well as the ownership of the aspirin trademark in canada . 21 in 1916 bayer scientists discovered suramin an anti parasite drug that is still sold by bayer under the brand name germanin . the formula of suramin was kept secret by bayer for commercial reasons ; however it was elucidated and published in 1924 by ernest fourneau and his team of the pasteur institute . 22 378 379 23 it is on the world health organization s list of essential medicines a list of the most important medication needed in a basic health system . 24 bayer became part of ig farben a german chemical company conglomerate in 1925 . in the 1930s ig farben scientists gerhard domagk fritz mietzsch and joseph klarer discovered prontosil the first commercially available antibacterial drug . the discovery and development of this first sulfonamide drug opened a new era in medicine . 25 domagk received the nobel prize in medicine for this work in 1939 . 26 world war ii edit during world war ii ig farben used slave labor in factories that it built adjacent to german concentration camps notably auschwitz 27 and the sub camps of the mauthausen gusen concentration camp . 28 ig farben purchased prisoners for human experimentation of a sleep inducing drug and later reported that all test subjects died . 29 30 ig farben held a large investment in degesch which produced zyclon b used to gas and kill prisoners during the holocaust . 31 after world war ii the allies broke up ig farben and bayer reappeared as an individual business inheriting many of ig farben s assets . 29 fritz ter meer an ig farben board member from 1926 to 1945 who directed operations at the ig farben plant at auschwitz was sentenced to seven years in prison during the ig farben military tribunal at nuremberg . he was elected bayer s supervisory board head in 1956 . 32 in 1995 helge wehmeier the head of bayer publicly apologized to elie wiesel for the company s involvement in the holocaust at a lecture in pittsburgh . 31 post world war ii edit bayer factory in leverkusen germany in the 1960s bayer introduced a pregnancy test primodos that consisted of two pills that contained norethisterone as acetate and ethinylestradiol . it detected pregnancy by inducing menstruation in women who were not pregnant . the presence or absence of menstrual bleeding was then used to determine whether the user was pregnant . the test became the subject of controversy when it was blamed for birth defects and it was withdrawn from the market in the mid 1970s . litigation in the 1980s regarding these claims ended inconclusively . a review of the matter by the medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency in 2014 assessed the studies performed to date and concluded that it found the evidence for adverse effects to be inconclusive . 33 in 1978 bayer purchased miles laboratories and its subsidiaries miles canada and cutter laboratories acquiring along with them a variety of product lines including alka seltzer flintstones vitamins and one a day vitamins and cutter insect repellent . 34 along with the purchase of cutter bayer acquired cutter s factor viii business . factor viii a clotting agent used to treat hemophilia was produced at the time by processing donated blood . in the early days of the aids epidemic people with hemophilia were found to have higher rates of aids and by 1983 the cdc had identified contaminated blood products as a source of infection . 35 according to the new york times this was one of the worst drug related medical disasters in history . 35 companies including bayer developed new ways to treat donated blood with heat to decontaminate it and these new products were introduced early in 1984 . in 1997 bayer and the other three makers of such blood products agreed to pay 660 million to settle cases on behalf of more than 6 000 hemophiliacs infected in united states . 35 but in 2003 documents emerged showing that cutter had continued to sell unheated blood products in markets outside the us until 1985 . 35 in the late 1990s bayer introduced a statin drug baycol cerivastatin but after 52 deaths were attributed to