BAYER CORPORATION BACKGROUND INFORMATION
28 February 2005 - Bayer MaterialScience AG

Founded in 1863 to manufacture synthetic dyestuffs, Bayer today is one of the world’s largest, most recognized companies.

The Bayer Group had nearly 29 billion euros in sales in 2003, with net North American sales of 8.8 billion euros. In February 2005, the Bayer Group, with more than 100 manufacturing sites worldwide, employed approximately 95,000. Bayer employed nearly 17,000 in North America.

In 2004, Bayer completed the largest reorganization in the company’s history, focusing its business activities into three areas: material science, health care and crop science.

Bayer MaterialScience

Bayer MaterialScience, with NAFTA operations headquarters in Pittsburgh, is a global leader in key growth markets serving the automotive, comfort, engineering thermoplastics, insulation, coatings, adhesives and sealants industries. The Pittsburgh operations include the group’s NAFTA research and development activities, the Americas Technical Center and the Future Business Group.

Bayer MaterialScience’s key products include polyurethanes, polycarbonates, thermoplastic polyurethanes and coating raw materials. It holds a top global market position in the chemical raw materials that produce polyurethane foams and in polyurethane coating raw materials. The company is a global leader and second in global capacity for polycarbonates.

H.C. Starck, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG and functionally part of Bayer MaterialScience, produces metal and ceramic powders, nonferrous metals for sophisticated electronic applications and intermediate chemicals for advanced ceramics. Bayer MaterialScience’s Wolff Walsrode division specializes in cellulose chemistry. Cellulose is a renewable raw material used in building materials, printing inks, surface coatings and personal care products. Bayer MaterialScience has facilities in North and South America. They are located in Baytown and Channelview, Texas; Berlin, Conn.; Columbus, Ga.; Hebron and Cleveland, Ohio; Deerfield, Sheffield and Newton, Mass.; Latrobe, Pa.; East Rutherford and Carlstadt, N.J.; Coldwater, Mich.; New Martinsville and South Charleston, W.Va.; Santa Clara, Mexico; and Belford Roxo, Brazil.

Bayer HealthCare

Tarrytown, N.Y., is home to Bayer HealthCare’s North American headquarters. The U.S. is an important market for all Bayer HealthCare subgroups. They include:

Bayer Animal Health, with U.S. headquarters in Shawnee, Kan., develops, manufactures and distributes veterinary products that enhance and maintain the health of companion animals and livestock. Leading products include Advantage® topical solution for flea control in dogs and cats, K-9 Advantix® for flea, tick and mosquito control in dogs, and the Baytril® family of antibiotics approved for use in dogs, cats, cattle and poultry.

Bayer Biological Products, with worldwide headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C., develops and produces genetically engineered products and treatments manufactured from human blood plasma. Its products enhance and extend the lives of patients suffering from a wide variety of disorders, including hemophilia, immune deficiencies and genetic emphysema.

In December 2004, Bayer announced its intention to sell its plasma business to NPS BioTherapeutics, Inc., a corporation controlled by affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management LP of New York and Ampersand Ventures of Wellesley, Mass. The sale, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first half of 2005. The divestiture does not include Kogenate®, the division’s genetically engineered hemophilia treatment product.

Bayer Consumer Care, headquartered in Morristown, N.J., is among the largest marketers of over-the-counter medications and nutritional supplements in the world. Its product portfolio includes the company's flagship brand Bayer® Aspirin, Aleve®, Phillips'® Milk of Magnesia, Midol®, Alka-Seltzer®, Bactine® and One-A-Day® and Flintstones® vitamins.

Bayer HealthCare’s Diagnostics Division, with global headquarters in Tarrytown, N.Y., is one of the world’s largest professional testing systems businesses. Its broad product portfolio diagnoses and monitors cardiovascular and kidney disease, oncology, virology and women's health through central laboratory, molecular testing and near-patient care systems and services.

Bayer HealthCare’s Diabetes Care Division, headquartered in Elkhart, Ind., is one of the world’s market leaders in blood glucose monitoring systems to help people with diabetes manage their disease both at home and on the go.

Bayer HealthCare’s Pharmaceutical Division concentrates on key therapeutic areas of high impact and significant medical need—anti-infectives, cardiovascular risk management and oncology. The company’s Specialty Pharmaceuticals business has its headquarters in West Haven, Conn., also the site of Bayer’s global cancer research.

Bayer CropScience

Bayer CropScience LP is the U.S. business of Bayer CropScience AG, one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and services for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications.

The U.S. business headquarters for Bayer CropScience is in Research Triangle Park, N.C., with the company’s Crop Protection and BioScience business groups also based there. The Environmental Science business group, which includes the Bayer Advancedä line of consumer home, lawn and garden products, has its headquarters in Montvale, N.J.

Bayer CropScience’s Core Technology Center, the principal location for research and development and industrial operations, is in Kansas City, Mo. Other major industrial operations sites are in Institute, W.Va., Muskegon, Mich., St. Louis, Mo., Woodbine, Ga., and Pasadena, Texas.

http://www.bayermaterialscience.com

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