Bayer’s virtual media day event in Berlin on Wednesday attracted participants from around the world. There, it announced it is stepping up invest in innovation. — VNS Photo
Bayer said on Wednesday that it has been heavily investing in external innovation with an unprecedented number of more than 25 collaborations and acquisitions.
The announcement was made at its virtual pharma media day organised in Berlin, Germany.
‘Transforming Healthcare. Transforming Bayer’ presented the company’s exciting progress in transforming its pharmaceutical business with breakthrough innovations in healthcare that will significantly help patients suffering from conditions that are currently still difficult to treat.
“There is an unprecedented pace of bio-medical and technological revolutions that are transforming healthcare now. Our company is at the forefront of the wave of innovations in cell and gene therapy as well as digital health,” Stefan Oelrich, member of the board of management, Bayer AG and president of Bayer’s pharmaceuticals division, said.
“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 mediumand long terms.”
Speakers from Bayer, its partners and leading experts spoke about how the company is committed to transforming people’shealth by fulfilling its strategic ambition in areas like cell and gene therapy and digital health and by driving forward the company’s promising development portfolio.
Cell and gene therapy was one of the three main topic discussed at the event.
According to experts, cell and gene therapies offered for the first time the possibility of addressing the root cause of disease, providing options for conditions considered incurableor where the current standard of care only addresses symptoms to various 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 established a new Cell and Gene Therapy Platform,which steers the company’s strategy into the area and orchestrates all activities along the value chain providing an innovation eco-system to all partners.
Bayer’s development portfolio of cell and gene therapies already comprises seven advanced assets in different stages of clinical development. These are focused on multiple therapeutic areas with high unmet needs such as neurodegenerative, neuromuscular and cardiovascular indications, with leading programs in Pompe disease, Parkinson’s disease, hemophilia A, and congestive heart failure.
With over 15 pre-clinical assets in the cell and gene therapy field, the pipeline is expected to grow steadily year after year.
“Cell and gene therapies hold the promise to significantly impact patients’ lives by moving from treating symptoms to potentially curative approaches,” Wolfram Carius, executive VP and head of cell and gene therapy at Bayer, said. “Together with our partners, we want to accelerate innovation at its source and along the whole value chain to ensure a rapidtranslation of science into therapies for patients who have no time to wait.”
Experts also discussed digital healthcare.
Digital healthcare offerings have become an important pillar of modern healthcare. The combination of conventional healthcare approaches with innovative digital technologies makes it possible to offer efficient solutions addressing the needs of a person in their specific environment.
Bayer announced it is developing integrated care concepts thatoffer individual support to patients. This personalised approach addresses complex and interconnected health challenges within individual circumstances.
Also at the event, Bayer reported it has a strong development pipeline advancing more than 50 projects through the clinicwith a focus on cardiovascular diseases, oncology and women’s health. It highlighted two promising programmes in mid-stage development that demonstrate its medical innovation.
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 are needed in thrombosis prevention.
At the same time the company is also successfully delivering on its late-stage pipeline in the areas of oncology and cardiovascular disease including a number of potential blockbuster products.
In the field of women’s health, Bayer recently added a highly attractive asset to its development portfolio through the acquisition of KaNDy Therapeutics. — VNS