Bayer will cut 12,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce | Internationale

Bayer aims to cut 12,000 jobs and get rid of its animal health unit in a bid to calm Wall Street, which has punished it for a series of lawsuits filed after Monsanto's purchase for $ 63,000 million. dollars.

(Read: Bayer has decided to eliminate the Monsanto brand)

The German company has announced a series of measures, including the sale of its solar protection and foot care sectors, which would boost its pharmaceutical and agricultural divisions.

The cuts, many of which in Germany, where layoffs can be politically sensitive, account for about 10% of their workforce. The market value of the pharmaceutical company decreased by 30,000 million euros (August 2004), when a California court ruled against its Roundup herbicide and said that it could have caused the cancer in a school gardener.

At least 9,000 more lawsuits are pending. After the fall of about 40% of the shares over the last year, Bayer has been faced with growing questions about its continuity as a conglomerate.

In the absence of synergies between divisions selling herbicides, anticancer drugs and anti-cat collars, changes were expected before a meeting in London on Wednesday. The segments of business health are also facing challenges.

The pharmaceutical unit will lose patent protection of its two major drugs over the next five years and does not offer many new products to offset that. The consumer health division, which strengthened four years ago with brands such as Claritin, is weakening and experiencing a third consecutive year of declining sales.