Complementing our in-house expertise with the know-how of excellent partners beyond Bayer - from academia and industry to startups - is an integral part of driving innovation impact at Bayer.
Together with bright minds also beyond Bayer, we join forces to develop new therapeutic options for patients, as well as solutions to optimize agricultural output and effectiveness.
All in all, with our Open Innovation programs, we offer
- Funding of novel ideas via our crowdsourcing G4 programs
- Co-working / lab space via our global network of CoLaborator programs
- Startup acceleration and collaboration via our G4A program
- Tailored partnering programs.
By investing venture capital, we support up-and-coming companies in life sciences to explore disruptive technologies beyond our core. For this reason, the innovation initiative “Leaps by Bayer” has been established.
Leaps by Bayer is spearheading a movement to make paradigm-shifting advances in the life sciences – targeting the breakthroughs that could fundamentally change the world for the better. Across healthcare and agriculture, Leaps by Bayer is aiming to conquer ten huge challenges facing humanity. Some people call them impossible. We call them leaps. We feel it is our responsibility to set new benchmarks; to find the courage to begin where others resist; and to drive breakthrough innovation. And we will not do it alone: we will collaborate with the world’s smartest minds in biotech.
It’s an approach that helps Bayer accessing cutting-edge technologies which impacts human health as well as crop science. The operating model is unique and stands for building new companies in collaboration with third parties (such as biotech companies, venture capital funds or hedge funds). Leaps by Bayer is complementary to Bayer’s divisional R&D approach as it only works on new technologies with breakthrough potential that aren’t part of the Bayer R&D portfolio.
To tackle these challenges, Bayer has founded three new companies to access disruptive technologies and breakthrough innovation:
- Casebia Therapeutics: The objective of Casebia is to research curative treatments for several rare human diseases in Hematology/Autoimmune by utilizing CRISPR/Cas-based DNA editing.
- BlueRock Therapeutics: The focus lies on research around pluripotent stem cell technologies with the defined objective to create breakthrough innovations to cure Parkinson’s and chronic heart failure.
- JoynBio: Initial efforts focus on nitrogen fixation to enhance sustainability in agriculture. Researchers will broadly explore application of beneficial microbes to plants for next generation solutions to agriculture’s biggest challenges.