Why Bayer Is One of the World's Most Hated Companies

1. Company Origins and Aspirin Legacy

Bayer was founded in 1860s Germany by Friedrich Bayer and Johan Wescott as a pigment company. By the late 1800s, chemist Felix Hoffman synthesized aspirin, which became Bayer's flagship product. Bayer held the US patent until 1918, when the US government seized the trademark during WWI and sold it to Sterling, preventing Bayer from reacquiring American aspirin rights until 1994.

2. Corporate Size and Market Dominance

Bayer Group comprises 291 consolidated companies across 80 countries employing over 90,000 people with ~$50 billion in annual sales. Nearly half comes from crop science (seeds and herbicides), while the rest derives from pharmaceuticals and consumer health products. Major acquisitions include Miles Laboratories (1978), Claritin/Miralax (2014), and numerous other behind-the-scenes deals, establishing Bayer as one of the largest and most powerful companies in multiple industries.

3. Heroin Commercialization

In the early 1900s, Bayer commercially produced heroin and marketed it as a safer alternative to morphine, promoting it as a cough suppressant for tuberculosis and pneumonia patients. As the drug's addictive properties became better understood, Bayer ceased production in 1913. Heroin was subsequently banned in the United States, though Bayer's role in popularizing it remains historically significant.

4. Nazi-Era IG Farben and WWII Atrocities

In 1925, Bayer merged with five other German chemical companies to form IG Farben, which became Germany's dominant chemical conglomerate and the financial backbone of the Nazi regime. IG Farben controlled seized chemical companies, exploited forced labor (estimated one-third of workforce by 1940), and allegedly paid a doctor to test drugs on concentration camp prisoners deliberately infected with targeted conditions. After WWII, Allied forces dissolved IG Farben and reconstituted Bayer as an independent company.

5. HIV-Contaminated Blood Products Scandal

In the 1970s, hemophiliacs could be treated with blood plasma-derived factor concentrates. After acquiring Cutter Laboratories in 1974, Bayer marketed these products in the 1980s. When contamination with HIV was discovered, Bayer developed a heat-treated safer version but allegedly continued selling the old contaminated product in Asian and Latin American countries. Multiple legal settlements followed, though Bayer never admitted wrongdoing, with hundreds of individuals allegedly infected.

6. Monsanto Acquisition and Ongoing Legal Battles

In 2018, Bayer finalized a $60 billion acquisition of Monsanto—the largest deal ever by a German company—connecting Bayer to Monsanto's controversial history with GMOs and Roundup herbicide. Roundup contains an ingredient believed to cause cancer. The combined company's stock market value subsequently fell below $60 billion, and Bayer faced a $10 billion settlement in 2020 related to Roundup lawsuits, making the acquisition widely viewed as one of history's worst corporate deals.

7. Balancing Positive Contributions and Controversies

While Bayer has made significant scientific contributions—such as a 1939 Nobel Prize for discovering an antibacterial drug—the company's extensive involvement in controversial sectors (pharmaceuticals, chemicals, seeds) has accumulated substantial criticism. The speaker concludes that though context and complexity exist, the aggregated historical issues create legitimate reasons for widespread negative perception.