Bayer AG (; German: [ˈbaɪɐ] is a German international pharmaceutical and also life sciences firm as well as among the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the globe. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer s areas of business consist of human and also veterinary drugs; consumer medical care items; agricultural chemicals, seeds and also biotechnology items. The firm is a part of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock exchange index. Werner Baumann has actually been CEO considering that 2016. Established in Barmen in 1863 as a dyestuffs factory, Bayer s initial as well as best-known product was pain killers. In 1898 Bayer trademarked the name heroin for the medicine diacetylmorphine and also marketed it as a cough suppressant and also non-addictive replacement for morphine till 1910. Bayer likewise presented phenobarbital; prontosil, the initial extensively made use of antibiotic and also the subject of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Medicine; the antibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin); and Yaz (drospirenone) birth contr...