You’re visiting India for the first time. How important is this market as part of your long-term strategy?
India is an important country for Bayer for two reasons. One, it’s an important business for us. All three divisions-crop science, pharmaceutical and consumer health-have a meaningful presence and it’s relatively high growth. Second, we’re a mission-driven company and many people have stayed with us for decades… for our mission of “health for all, hunger for none.” India is at the centre of that-in terms of the opportunity for progress and innovation, as well as in terms of need. We are opening our global innovation centre in Bengaluru for large language model AI and agentic AI for Bayer worldwide. In India, we have access to exceptional talent and the business environment is strong. We see this as Indian technology and expertise supporting Bayer’s global mission.
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What opportunities do you see in the country?
From my perspective as an outsider, there are tremendous opportunities in India in terms of the young population, the education system and increasing technological leadership in many fields. The question is how to transition a significant number of the 150 million people in agriculture away from subsistence farming towards real economic prosperity. The timing may be right because the nextgen growing up on farms has had the chance to get an education and may want careers beyond farming. Another area is energy independence. India has a commitment to biofuels, but if you want biofuels you need a lot more corn. Corn produces large quantities of ethanol, and the byproduct from ethanol production can be used as protein feed for poultry, which is in increasing demand. So there is a combination of opportunity and need coming together.
You joined Bayer at a time when the company was facing multiple challenges. What has been your turnaround strategy?We identified several things that needed to be fixed. First was the pharmaceutical pipeline, which had been diminishing. Over the last three years, we have changed that. In crop science, there has been intense competition in crop protection, so we are shifting our portfolio toward highly targeted products. We needed to pay down our debt. Another issue was bureaucracy…we reduced managers by two-thirds and created one of the flattest organisations in the world. What we’ve seen is that quality and consistency remain strong, while speed has increased. There is the litigation situation in the US. We’ve announced a settlement agreement and hope to put that behind us.
How do you measure your turnaround success?
In pharmaceuticals, the true test will be returning to revenue growth. We have suffered some major patent losses. We believe we can begin growing again this year and return to mid-single-digit growth through the rest of the decade. In crop science, success will be measured by both growth and profitability. We aim to increase profitability from the high teens to the mid-20s by 2029. In consumer health, our goal is to grow with or above the market. Those are the proof points investors will focus on.The team in India has an official plan to grow in the mid-to-high single digits, but their ambition is higher than that. It comes from investments Bayer is making along with partners in initiatives like farming centres that provide last-mile access to farm inputs, finance, insurance and market linkages to farmers. At the same time, adoption of technologies like drones to spray the fields will be major time savers.
How do you see India’s long-term role in biomedical innovation compared with countries like China?
India has tremendous potential as both a market and an R&D hub. It has the intellectual power to do this. It has leading universities and excellent doctors, including many expatriates who could return. China also benefited from a reverse brain drain, with many scientists returning home. But ultimately, innovation requires the right market environment. India has made progress in this direction, though there is still more to be done. One opportunity is to separate large public health programmes from the healthcare systems serving the growing middle class. That approach has been used in China and Brazil. It ensures affordable access to medicines for lower-income populations while allowing premium healthcare markets to fund biomedical innovation. India’s middle-class is larger than the population of many countries. With the right policy framework, that could support growth in medical innovation. The real question is whether India wants to become a world leader in biomedical innovation or remain a supplier of generic medicines to the world. India has the scientific talent and medical capabilities to achieve that leadership.
Could India become one of your top pharmaceutical markets globally?
I think it could. The key to unlocking the investment required is stronger intellectual property protection, particularly regulatory data protection. Drug development takes so long that by the time a medicine reaches the market, the remaining patent life may be limited. When that happens, it becomes difficult to build a viable business model. Regulatory data protection ensures innovators have eight or 10 years of exclusivity. After that, generics enter the market and prices fall dramatically, often by 90-95%. China implemented similar policies in the late 2000s. Since then, the pharmaceutical market there has expanded significantly, and investment in biotechnology has grown even faster. India has the intellectual and medical capabilities for a similar transformation.
What does Bayer’s innovation pipeline look like?
In crop science, we are working to launch 10 blockbusters over a 10-year period. One example is a product called Plenexos, a targeted insecticide, which we expect to launch in India around 2028. It can be used in doses as low as eight grams per acre. It’s a very selective insecticide that targets piercing and sucking insects while protecting beneficial insects.We also have important seed innovations, including short-stature corn. Instead of growing three metres tall, these plants grow around two metres. We want to bring the technology to markets worldwide, including India. On pharmaceutical side, we have stroke prevention drug Asundexian, whose data was presented at World Stroke Conference in New Orleans. We would like to bring that to India. We sell Kerendia in India, which treats kidney disease and is expanding into heart failure treatment.
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How important is India as a hub for clinical research and trials?
The most advanced medical centres in India are world class, which means they can play an important role in clinical trials. The main obstacles to fully realising India’s potential are market access and data protection frameworks. If those improve, India could become an even more significant player in global medical research.
Do you see rising climate consciousness as a business opportunity for companies such as yours?
We have made a major push to make our crop science business more climate resilient. One important innovation centred on India is direct-seeded rice. These are rice varieties that grow without the need for flooded fields. That reduces water use by 40-50% and methane emissions by a similar amount.
Do you see AI as a game changer?
Bayer has been using AI in plant breeding and computational biology. We use AI in digital farming, analysing satellite data, soil samples, climate information and crop yields. These systems help us provide farmers with precise recommendations on seeds, soil treatments and crop protection strategies.
