Society

More than one year into the pandemic, health and nutrition — two of our most basic needs — take on even more importance. Fueled by our vision “Health for All, Hunger for None”, Bayer is collaborating with government agencies, health authorities and other organizations around the world in the fight against COVID-19 with a variety of efforts, including financial contributions, the donation of medicines, medical, diagnostic and protective equipment, and the leveraging of dedicated research space at select Research & Development sites to increase testing capacity.

From the beginning of the crisis, Bayer has donated supplies, products and monetary support to more than 60 countries in excess of 29 million euros. Here are a few examples.

We’re giving financial support to severely affected areas to provide assistance quickly and efficiently

• EUR 1 million donation each to various government and health care authorities in the European countries worst affected by the pandemic – Italy, Spain and France.
• EUR 1 million donation to three different initiatives in Brazil —the Arrecadação Solidária, a Federal Government's project, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) — for the purchase of safety items and hospital supplies.
• EUR 568.000 to the Red Cross Society in China deployed where most needed.

We’re donating medicines as well as over-the-counter medications

• In the United States, patients who take prescription Bayer medicines and who have lost their insurance coverage and find themselves in financial need as a result of the corona crisis will receive immediate free access to these medicines.
• To date, 2.4 million units of every day healthcare products donated globally including 1 million over-the-counter medications and multivitamins to Americans who can’t easily access them today as well as donations of Bepanthen® to over 100,000 frontline healthcare professionals in 27 countries to ease their skin from the effects of wearing masks and gloves for extended periods of time.

We’re donating medical and protective equipment

• We donated 28,000 thousand masks to protect people from infection after the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon and the fire in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece. Over 600,000 respiratory masks and other personal protection equipment (PPE), such as protective goggles and gloves, have already been donated to various countries, such as China, India, Poland, and Argentina.
• In Germany, 200,000 masks were donated from its own inventory to the Red Cross.
• The Technical Development Center (TDC) at our Research and Development headquarters in Chesterfield, Missouri, has produced 400,000 face shields in cooperation with Stratasys, a leading manufacturer of 3D printers, to help doctors, nurses, and first aiders protect themselves from infection because, unlike respiratory masks, these shields also protect the top half of the person’s face.
• A converted 3D printer at our facility in Lerma, Mexico, is producing transparent face shields to donate to hospitals, health centers and other health facilities in the country.
• In Dormagen and in Orizaba, Mexico, we produced a total of more than 150,000 liters of disinfectant. At both sites, the disinfectant was distributed free of charge in the region.
   

We're supporting smallholder farmers with Care Packages and COVID-19 related health services

• Bayer as a long-term partner of Better Life Farming (BLF) has been providing BLF Care Packages to smallholders in some of the most disrupted areas worldwide. Read more about how we support smallholder farmers with services, produce offtake and health and safety measures during COVID-19 here.
   
• The BLF Centers in India, Indonesia and Bangladesh found new ways in times of COVID-19 to continue their existing services to enable and support smallholder farmers. Click here to read how these new ways look like. 
   

We’re offering diagnostics devices and space to accelerate COVID-19 testing capacity

• Bayer has made its ‘Erholungshaus’, a cultural and event venue, available to the city of Leverkusen as a vaccination center. 
• Bayer employees with pharmaceutical training are given the option to take paid leave to volunteer at testing centers. Pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians are needed there to ensure that the vaccine is prepared and dosed properly. Bayer covers the personnel costs for the time of the assignment by continuing to pay their salaries, so that the centers do not incur any costs.We made virus diagnostics devices available from our research operations from various German sites, enabling Germany’s COVID-19 analysis capacity to be increased by several thousand tests daily.
• We are also lending PCR devices to hospitals in France and Spain.
• In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the company is providing equipment to certified external testing laboratories, as well as supplying three certified clinical diagnostic laboratories with company apparatus from the Leverkusen, Monheim, Wuppertal and Cologne sites. In addition, we established a two-story testing laboratory at our Berlin campus, and more than 140 employees have volunteered to staff the new testing laboratory. Bayer is giving them a leave of absence from their regular jobs for this purpose. By year-end 2020, more than 100,000 Covid-19 PCR tests were evaluated in the Berlin/Brandenburg region.

We joined forces with other organizations to maximize resources in the search for new treatments

• We are supporting the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by opening up our vast compound library to find and develop effective novel compounds against COVID-19.
• We committed EUR 500,000 to the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) for the screening of a molecular target against the Bayer substance library.
• Bayer is partnering with the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) in Canada to launch a major clinical research program aimed at identifying potential treatments against COVID-19. The two studies will test the safety and efficacy of several different combination therapies including Resochin® and Betaferon®.

We’re providing resources to help with the added pressures of the Shelter-in-Place restrictions

• The 'Better Farms Better Life' initiative has provided relief to more than two million farmers through donations of seeds and crop protection products. These smallholder farmers from Africa, Asia and Latin America have experienced hardship due to the Corona pandemic. and are responsible for the food security of millions of people. More than three million euros were donated to the program last year.
• Science at Home with Bayer is a series that features fun STEM educational activities parents can use to keep their kids learning while staying at home. Your child may not be able to attend school right now, but their curiosity and love for science can continue at home!