Abbott Laboratories grants Bayer HealthCare rights to new cancer and transplantation drug tests

Bayer to expand its ADVIA Centaur franchise assay offering to include tests for free PSA and tacrolimus.

Monday - January 30, 2006, Leverkusen – Bayer HealthCare, Diagnostics Division, a member of the Bayer Group (NYSE:BAY), announced today that it has been granted licenses under key patent rights relating to free PSA and tacrolimus tests from Abbott Laboratories. Bayer intends to develop these two new tests for its ADVIA Centaur and ADVIA Centaur CP immunoassay systems immediately.

“By adding free PSA to the oncology portfolio, Bayer HealthCare Diagnostics will have a very comprehensive diagnostic menu for prostate cancer markers,” said Samir Taneja, MD, Director of Urologic Oncology, NYU Cancer Institute and School of Medicine. The flexibility will allow physicians to select the tests they feel most appropriate to differentiate malignant and benign prostate disease within the individual patient.

“The addition of fPSA and tacrolimus to our assay offering will enhance the laboratories ability to increase their test offering while optimizing their overall efficiency,” commented Tom Warekois, SVP Global Strategic Marketing, Bayer Diagnostics. “This is another example of Bayer HealthCare Diagnostics’ commitment to expanding the test offering for immunosuppression drugs. Tacrolimus is complimentary to cyclosporine which is currently also in development and scheduled to release in 2006.”

Free PSA Test
The free PSA test is primarily ordered when a patient has a moderately elevated total PSA that does not appear to be caused by a non-cancer-related condition. The results give the doctor additional information about whether a patient is at an increased risk of having prostate cancer and helps with the decision of whether to biopsy the prostate.

Tacrolimus Test
The tacrolimus test is designed to determine the amount of immunosuppressant drug in the patient’s system. Primarily, the drug tacrolimus is used as an immunosuppressant in liver transplant patients.

ADVIA Centaur Immunoassay Systems
The ADVIA Centaur system was rated one of the most productive and efficient immunochemistry platforms in the marketplace today by an independent U.S. customer survey.4 In addition to testing for infectious diseases, the system provides testing for a broad range of conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, fertility, anemia, thyroid diseases, allergy, metabolic diseases and therapeutic drug monitoring. The ADVIA Centaur CP immunoassay system is a compact, benchtop, fully automated analytical system which enables hospital and reference laboratories to rapidly perform a wide variety of disease-specific tests.

About Bayer HealthCare AG
Bayer HealthCare AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the health care and medical products industry. In 2004, the Bayer HealthCare subgroup generated sales amounting to some 8.5 billion Euro.

The company combines the global activities of the divisions Animal Health, Consumer Care, Diabetes Care, Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals. Since January 1, 2006 the new Pharmaceutical Division consists of the former Biological Products and Pharmaceutical Division and now comprises three business units: Hematology/Cardiology; Oncology and Primary Care.
Bayer HealthCare employed 35,300 people worldwide in 2004.

Bayer HealthCare’s aim is to discover and manufacture innovative products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. The products enhance well-being and quality of life by diagnosing, preventing and treating disease.

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Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in our public reports filed with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including our Form 20-F).The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Contact Information

Dr. Gisela Lenz

Diagnostics/Diabetes Care

Bayer HealthCare AG

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