Bayer records a historic day on the stock market. The pharmaceutical company’s shares plummeted more than 18%, to 33.77 euros, on the German stock market after completing a study with the anticoagulant drug Asundexian to reduce the risk of stroke and after a new legal setback in the US. Investors punish the company after ending the study with Asundexian, which expected to significantly increase its sales and replace Xarelto from 2026, due to lack of effectiveness.
Added to this is the judicial setback in the United States for which it will have to pay 1,560 million dollars (about 1,430 million euros) for the glyphosate that is present in the RoundUp herbicide after a trial with an impartial jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, who blamed the herbicide for the cancer they suffer from.
These events put Bill Anderson, who was promoted to CEO in June, on the ropes. During the presentation of the quarterly results, the group developed that it is exploring a possible segregation of its agricultural division (CropScience) or non-prescription medicines (Consumer Health), but the split of these units is not contemplated, which would divide the multinational into three companies.
In this regard, Bayer contemplates a layoff plan through which it will carry out layoffs, eliminating positions at management and coordination levels after recording losses of 4,278 million in contrast to the profit of 3,539 million recorded in the same period of the previous year due to . of the impact of outliers. Specifically, the deterioration of assets in the agricultural business due to increases in interest rates has cost it 7,224, a figure that includes a negative effect of 4,303 million in the third quarter.
With this Monday’s crash, which has wiped out more than 7,700 million in market capitalization and is now worth 32,965 million, the pressure on Anderson increases, with the market asking for a change of course. This Monday’s fall drags Bayer to record losses in the annual calculation, with a decline of more than 30%, appearing as the second value of the German Dax that falls the most, after Siemens Energy (31.8%) which has also suffered a setback . stock market recently as a result of the problems arising from the integration of its subsidiary, Siemens Gamesa into the parent company.
