The Bayer Group hopes to improve people's lives while maximising billions in potential sales, according to Management Board Chairman, Dr. Marijn Dekker.

Dekkers explained that significant opportunities are presenting themselves for the innovation company as a result of trends such as population growth and demographic changes, ecology and sustainability.

"To us, innovation always means generating value for our customers and society as a whole," Dekkers continued.

Dekkers explained that plant health is a very important issue. He said the Bayer CropScience subgroup already offers a balanced portfolio of new products and product candidates, including Xpro^â„¢ and Luna^â„¢ to control fungal infections and the insecticide Sivanto^â„¢ for application primarily in fruits, vegetables and various field crops.

Dekkers highlighted the benefits of these innovations using the example of Xproâ„¢, which was used in roughly one quarter of the planting area in Germany for cereals.

In light of societal acceptance of biologically grown food products, biologicals will play a key role in the future of crop protection. Bayer is keen to be represented in this field from the beginning, Dekkers remarked. Essentially, the issue concerns microorganisms such as bacteria or their metabolites that are applied to crops. They act biologically on various species of plant pests. Although Bayer is already represented on the market with biological products such as the recently launched Votivo^â„¢ brand, the acquisition of AgraQuest now provides the company with an excellent starting point for further innovation.

Dekkers emphasised that Bayer has a unique starting position due to its extensive expertise with respect to the health of people, animals and plants.

"Bayer sees good opportunities for developing numerous new and innovative products particularly in cooperation with research institutes and universities, as well as with start-up companies", explained Professor Wolfgang Plischke, whose responsibilities on the Board of Management of Bayer AG include the areas of innovation, technology and sustainability. The focus here is on the life sciences. "It is no longer possible for companies to achieve everything on their own. Cooperation agreements and alliances have now become an integral part of the innovation culture of all research-based companies," Plischke said.

One vital requirement is to structure these partnerships intelligently from the outset, Plischke remarked, explaining that the correct cooperation model needs to be found based on the objectives and skills of everyone involved. Each partner contributes specific expertise that will enable the joint goal to be achieved faster and more efficiently, the Management Board member said.

"Our objective is to deliver the first or best solution for optimal yields for key crops worldwide," said Plischke. According to the Board member, this includes, for example, wheat - in which yields cannot be sufficiently increased with conventional methods to match world population growth. Developing a new variety takes a similar amount of time to producing a new drug - eight to 12 years. "A global network of plant breeders and cooperation projects with leading research institutes will help us in this respect," said Plischke. Bayer CropScience maintains alliances, aimed, for example, at improving cotton seed or developing herbicides with new mechanisms of action.