Performance by Technical Area

Has an access-to-medicine strategy with board-level responsibility. Bayer has an access-to-medicine strategy with a business rationale. Bayer's access approach has as a key focus on family planning and maternal and neonatal health. The highest level of responsibility for access sits with a board-level committee. 

Financial and non-financial access-related incentives to reward employees. Bayer performs strongly in encouraging employees to work towards access-related objectives. It is one of 14 companies to have both financial and non-financial incentives in place to motivate employees to perform on access-related issues. These incentives include variable performance-related compensations. Bayer's senior management has a separate incentive that supports the company's long-term access oriented objectives.

One of 16 companies working on impact measurement. Bayer measures and monitors progress and outcomes of access-to-medicine activities. It also publicly reports on commitments, for example, it reports to commit to supply medicines to fight African sleeping sickness to WHO. Furthermore, it is part of the Access Accelerated initiative, which includes a commitment to evaluate impact. 

Discloses who it engages with, incorporates local perspectives into strategies. Bayer publicly discloses which stakeholder groups it engages with on access issues, as well as its process for selecting who to engage with. It selects by a process based on expertise, activity and geographic coverage. Local stakeholder perspectives are incorporated into the development of its access strategies. It publicly shares its policy for ensuring responsible engagement; namely with its principles of responsible lobbying.

Has measures to ensure third-party compliance with ethical marketing and anti-corruption standards. Bayer has a policy relating to ethical marketing and anti-corruption, and provides regular compliance training for employees. The company provides evidence of having formal processes in place to ensure compliance with standards by third parties. Yet, expected performance for sales agents is based solely on sales targets. 

Internal control framework meets some Index criteria. Bayer's internal control framework to ensure compliance meets some of the criteria looked for by the Index. Namely, it audits compliance following an annual audit plan. It does not report conducting fraud-specific risk assessments, nor does it demonstrate evidence of a monitoring system in place to track compliance in the workplace. However, Bayer does not demonstrate evidence of having procedures to segregate duties, so that decisions are checked by another party. 

Average transparency regarding access-related practices. Bayer publicly discloses its policy positions on access-related topics (e.g., its positions on intellectual property, and TRIPS). It also publicly discloses political contributions in countries in scope. Bayer publicly discloses its memberships of relevant organisations to access in countries in scope, but not the financial contributions it provides. It discloses its policies for responsible engagement within its code of conduct. However, the company does not publicly disclose its policy approach to payments made to healthcare professionals in countries in scope.

Commits to R&D to meet public health needs. Bayer has made a specific commitment to R&D for diseases and countries in scope, but it is not publicly available. Its R&D strategy for low- and middle-income countries is informed by an evidence-based public health rationale based on goals published by external sources like WHO. Further, it has time-bound strategies for completing R&D projects for diseases in scope and evaluates progress toward these targets. Bayer has one of the smallest pipelines in the Index with 11 projects. For diseases in scope where priorities exist, Bayer is active in four projects; three of these target priority R&D gaps.

Access provisions in place for 11% (1/9) of late-stage candidates. Bayer does not have a clear process in place to develop access plans during R&D. It does, however, consider access for some R&D projects for diseases in scope, namely for collaborative projects. To date, Bayer has project-specific access provisions in place for one of its late-stage R&D projects. This project, to develop a paediatric formulation of nifurtimox (Lampit®) for the treatment of Chagas disease, is being conducted in-house and includes a registration strategy and plan to apply for WHO prequalification.

No policy for post-trial access. Bayer does not have a policy for ensuring post-trial access to treatments for clinical trial participants. Additionally, it does not disclose a commitment to registering newly approved products in all countries where clinical trials for these products have taken place.

*Defined as a recommended time frame through consultation with stakeholders during Index methodology development.