Bayer Pharma committed to India growth; to push for more R&D

India continues to be one of the key markets for Bayer Pharmaceuticals in Asia Pacific region and it plans to continue its clinical research here, a senior company official said.

"Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for Bayer's pharmaceuticals sales globally. We are very interested and committed to India and are very successful with our combined product portfolio through our joint venture Bayer Zydus Pharma in India," Bayer Pharmaceuticals division Asia Pacific senior vice-president Claus Zieler told PTI here.

Bayer HealthCare and Zydus Cadila 50:50 JV - Bayer Zydus Pharma operates in key segments of the Indian pharmaceuticals market with a focus on womens healthcare, metabolic disorders, diagnostic imaging, cardiovascular diseases, anti-diabetic treatments and oncology.

Speaking on the sidelines of Bayer Asia/Pacific' conference here, Zieler said, the company has introduced globally successful products Xarelto and Eylea in the Indian market. "Our innovative medicines provide solutions to the region's major health challenges such as stroke, cancer and eye diseases related to ageing and diabetes," he said.

Bayer has ensured that the Asia Pacific population is well represented in its clinical development activities and it will continue to do its research in India too, Bayer Pharmaceuticals Division Asia Pacific head of medical affairs Chuan Kit Foo said.

"By involving Asia Pacific patients in our clinical development activities, we can provide patients with earlier access to potentially better treatments to address their unmet medical needs," Foo said.

Bayers pharmaceuticals business continued to be one of the fastest growing among top pharmaceutical multinational companies in the APAC region with sales of Euro () 5 billion in 2017. Many of the region's markets namely Australia, China, Korea and Taiwan delivered double digit growth rates in 2017, the company said.

The R&D also focuses on cardiovascular disease and cancer related to ageing population.

In 2017, Bayer increased its global R&D investments to nearly 4.5 billion, 64.1 percent of the R&D investment is in pharmaceuticals. Bayers pharmaceuticals pipeline has about 50 development projects in phase I to III of clinical development to serve such medical needs. Among these projects, six of them (in the mid to late stage pipeline) will have potential to treat various types of cancers, diabetic kidney disease, chronic heart failure and uterine fibroids which are prevalent in the Asia Pacific population.