Bayer Ag

Nova Corp., a Canadian energy and chemical firm, said it is selling its Polysar rubber division to the West German firm Bayer AG for $1.06 billion. Nova will use the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt, the company said in a statement from its Calgary, Alberta, headquarters. The rubber business is part of Polysar Ltd., a firm acquired by Nova in 1988.

Nektar Therapeutics Inc., whose Exubera inhaled insulin drug has failed to capture much interest, said it had signed an agreement with Bayer to jointly develop an inhaled antibiotic. Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer will pay $50 million upfront and then as much as $125 million more to Nektar as the firms meet clinical and regulatory milestones. San Carlos, Calif.-based Nektar's product, NKTR-061, is in midstage clinical trials to treat hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Biotech Firm Strikes Deal With Bayer: Arris Pharmaceutical Corp. said Bayer AG will invest up to $70 million as part of an agreement to jointly develop anti-inflammatory drugs. Under the agreement, Arris, a South San Francisco biotechnology company, will receive royalties and Bayer, a Germany-based drug company, will receive worldwide manufacturing and marketing rights on any drugs that they develop together.

Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s shares almost doubled Monday after the company said its only drug, Nexavar, helped patients with liver cancer stay alive longer. Nexavar is already approved for kidney tumors. The drug worked so well in trials with liver cancer patients that Onyx and its marketing partner, Bayer, will seek clearance from U.S. and European regulators as soon as possible to sell Nexavar for the added use, Onyx Chief Medical Officer Henry Fuchs said in a conference call.

In the latest front of Holocaust-related litigation, a federal class-action suit was filed Wednesday on behalf of survivors of Nazi death camps, alleging that Bayer AG, the giant German-owned chemical and pharmaceutical company, participated in cruel medical experiments by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele.

Mobay Corp., a subsidiary of Bayer USA Inc., said it has agreed to acquire Denka Chemical Corp. of Houston for an undisclosed sum. Denka, which has sales of nearly $100 million and employs about 400 workers, has plants in Houston; Duluth, Minn.; Carteret, N.J., and Little Ferry, N.J.

The chance that Bayer AG might announce an acquisition Thursday of Fullerton medical instruments maker Beckman Coulter Inc. evaporated when the German conglomerate's diagnostics unit said instead that it bought the rights to tests for HIV and hepatitis C from four rivals. Beckman's stock, which jumped as much as 10% on the acquisition rumors Wednesday, fell 20 cents Thursday to close at $39.81 a share on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bayer didn't work wonders for its previous owner. Now the German company that developed the popular painkiller in 1897 says it is regaining U.S. trademark rights that it lost after World War I and hopes to revive the brand. Bayer said Monday that it will regain the U.S. rights to the Bayer aspirin name by acquiring Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter medication business in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico from Britain's SmithKline Beecham for $1 billion.

German engineering conglomerate Siemens plans to bulk up its medical business by buying the diagnostics unit of drug and chemical firm Bayer for $5.3 billion. The acquisition, the second major purchase by Siemens' thriving healthcare unit in two months, would make the Munich-based giant the world's second-largest player in immunodiagnostics, which involves using antibodies to diagnose disease, it said Thursday.

German chemical and drug maker Bayer said Thursday that it would sell its HC Starck division to U.S.-based private equity firms Advent International and Carlyle Group for more than $900 million in cash. Starck, headquartered in Goslar in northern Germany, makes metal and ceramic powders, specialty chemicals and parts made from advanced ceramics and metals. It employs 3,400 people at 15 sites in Europe, Asia and North America and posted 2005 sales of 920 million euros ($1.2 billion).

German drug maker Bayer said Friday that it had suspended two senior employees over the company's failure to provide U.S. regulators with data on its heart-surgery drug Trasylol. Bayer also said it had hired an independent counsel to investigate its actions regarding the disclosure of the preliminary results from the Trasylol study. "Based on our investigation so far, we believe this was a serious error in judgment by two individuals," the company said in a statement.

German-based Bayer won a judge's approval of a $250-million settlement of civil claims that it colluded to fix U.S. rubber prices from 1995 to 2001. U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins in San Francisco said the accord with buyers of rubber chemicals was "fair, adequate and reasonable." Bayer was accused of colluding to fix prices of chemicals that are mixed with raw rubber to make finished rubber.

Bayer, the second-biggest corn-seed producer in the U.S., detected trace amounts of an unapproved genetically engineered rice variety in commercial U.S. samples, posing a threat to a portion of rice exports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration concluded that there were "no human health, food safety or environmental concerns associated with the rice," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said.

German engineering conglomerate Siemens plans to bulk up its medical business by buying the diagnostics unit of drug and chemical firm Bayer for $5.3 billion. The acquisition, the second major purchase by Siemens' thriving healthcare unit in two months, would make the Munich-based giant the world's second-largest player in immunodiagnostics, which involves using antibodies to diagnose disease, it said Thursday.

Bayer finally won control of Schering on Wednesday for an increased price of almost $22 billion as Merck bowed out and sold its stake to the larger drugs and chemicals group. Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck is independent of Merck & Co. in New Jersey. The German company, which had built up a holding of more than 21% in Schering after its own bid for the contraceptive-pill maker was topped by Bayer, said it would sell the Schering shares to Bayer.

German drug maker Bayer reported a loss of $165 million for the third quarter, blaming a weak global economy and the withdrawal of cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol after it was linked to patient deaths. The loss compares with net income of $470 million in the same period a year ago. Operating profit, which excludes charges related to the withdrawal of Baycol and other one-time items, dropped 91% to $58 million. Revenue fell 6% to $6.24 billion .

Bayer on Thursday disappointed investors by ruling out the sale of its pharmaceuticals unit and confirmed the appointment of company stalwart Werner Wenning as chief executive, beginning in April. Europe's second-biggest chemicals group said its supervisory board approved a plan to set up separate companies to operate its health-care and crop-protection businesses, but made clear its pharmaceuticals business would not be sold.

Two former Bayer executives were indicted on charges that they participated in a global conspiracy to fix the price of chemicals used to improve the strength of tires, outdoor furniture, hoses and rubber belts. Jurgen Ick, former head of Bayer's Rubber Business Group, and Gunter Monn, the group's former marketing head, were named in the indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Bayer, the maker of Alka-Seltzer stomach remedies and inventor of aspirin, agreed to buy Roche Holding's nonprescription healthcare unit for $3 billion as its main drug business lags behind competitors such as Pfizer Inc. and Novartis. The expanded division would have about 5% of the over-the-counter drug market, Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer said Monday. Germany's No. 2 drug and chemical maker also would gain full control of the U.S.