Bayer sees the pharmaceutical division back on track for growth due to the success of new drugs and the planned sales launch of new drugs.
“We now have five big blockbuster candidates,” said the head of the pharmaceutical division Stefan Oelrich in an interview with the financial news agency dpa-AFX during the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. The manager therefore expects “extremely good” growth in the coming years into the 2030s.
Among other things, Oelrich is counting on the continued success of the prostate cancer drug Nubeqa and Kerendia against chronic kidney disease and a certain form of heart failure. There are also great hopes for the blood clotting inhibitor Asundexian in stroke prevention after data from a pivotal study in November were convincing and thus also drove the share price.
The detailed study data should be published in three weeks, said Oelrich. Then the market potential can be better estimated. Analysts Christian Faitz and David Evans from Kepler Cheuvreux recently wrote that they and industry experts as a whole expected an achievable annual turnover of one billion euros in the event of a “decent” result. With “excellent” study results, even two billion euros would be conceivable.
This would continue the revival of the pharmaceutical business, which many analysts had long viewed with skepticism because of the burden caused by the expiry of patents on the blockbusters Xarelto, a blood clotting inhibitor, and Eylea, an eye drug. According to the Kepler experts, the long-assumed patent cliff now appears to be nothing more than a small bump in the road.
In the still young year of 2026, the DAX stock is almost nine percent ahead, after the price had increased by more than 90 percent in 2025. In addition to the improved prospects for the pharmaceutical division, the hope of a solution to the US legal disputes surrounding the weed killer glyphosate also provided tailwind.
Bayer shares on the rise
Bayer shares cost more than 40 euros on Wednesday for the first time since autumn 2023, extending their annual increase in 2026 to 10 percent. The DAX group sees the pharmaceutical division back on track for growth in 2027 due to the success of new drugs and the planned sales launch of new drugs.
In XETRA trading, Bayer shares ultimately traded 7 percent higher at 41.67 euros.
“We now have five big blockbuster candidates,” said division boss Stefan Oelrich to the financial news agency dpa-AFX during JPMorgan’s healthcare conference. The manager therefore expects “extremely good” growth in the coming years into the 2030s.
After a years-long price slide since 2015, Bayer shares began the recovery that has been ongoing to date in April 2025. The recovery towards the end of 2025 was also underpinned by increasing optimism for a way out of the glyphosate misery.
Bayer can hope for a favorable ruling by the highest US court in the legal dispute over the weed killer since the so-called Solicitor General – a kind of attorney general for the US government – supported the company’s request for a case to be examined by the US Supreme Court. The question is whether federal law on warning labels when selling glyphosate trumps state law.
The glyphosate case has weighed on Bayer since it took over the US agricultural chemical company Monsanto in 2018. The legal disputes over alleged cancer risks have already cost billions of euros and have had a heavy impact on the share price.
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SAN FRANCISCO/BERLIN (dpa-AFX)
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