AAA Bayer leaps to further funding

Bayer leaps to further funding

Leaps by Bayer, the corporate venturing unit of Germany-based drugs and crops company Bayer, has committed a further €1.3bn ($1.44bn) over the next three years to more than double the pace of spending to date.

The new investment plan was announced last month with a focus on cell and gene therapy (CGT) and precision health for consumers and innovations enable farmers to ensure food security and decarbonize agriculture.

Bayer has previously invested about €1.3bn in more than 50 companies in the past seven years. In addition, over the past three years, Bayer has invested more than €2.5bn to build up a CGT platform, including the acquisitions of BlueRock Therapeutics and Asklepios BioPharmaceutical and strategic collaborations with partners such as Mammoth Biosciences.

Jürgen Eckhardt, head of Leaps by Bayer, told Fierce Biotech the firm would make eight to 10 investments this year in a bid to make “fewer, but maybe bigger bets going forward”.

The firm’s latest investments include co-leading a fundraising round for cancer-targeting Affini-T Therapeutics, Recursion, an AI-focused company working to find new drug treatments for lung fibrosis and other fibrotic diseases, which successfully went public in April 2021, and Indapta Therapeutics for its natural killer cell platform.

Werner Baumann, chairman of the board of management of Bayer, said: “Our ability to tackle some of the greatest challenges is increasing rapidly. From providing answers for incurable diseases, equipping people with preventive tools to live healthier, better and longer lives, to producing more agricultural output whilst significantly reducing inputs and respecting the planetary boundaries. This ability is particularly driven by the accelerating confluence of biology, chemistry, advanced computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence.”

“Bayer’s R&D investment of €2bn annually in our crop science division is unparalleled in the industry, leading to a robust innovation pipeline spanning seeds and trait technologies, crop protection and digital solutions,” said Rodrigo Santos, president of the crop science division.

By James Mawson

James Mawson is founder and chief executive of Global Venturing.