Monheim, Germany
December 3, 2002

New products predicted to add over EUR 800 million to sales by 2006

Out of a total of six new active ingredients presented recently at the British Crop Protection Council (BCPC) Conference in Brighton, U.K., four came from Bayer CropScience AG, the Bayer AG subsidiary formed by the merger of Bayer's Crop Protection Business Group and Aventis CropScience. The new company, which launched operations in June 2002 and is already among the industry leaders, expects new product introductions to add more than EUR 450 million to its sales by 2004 and over EUR 800 million by 2006.

These new compounds are clear evidence of the R&D capability of Bayer CropScience, which plans to introduce another two to three new active ingredients annually in the coming years.

Of the four molecules that will serve as the basis for a number of new products and mixtures, two are fungicides that are particularly suitable for use in cereal crops. The other two are insecticides, one offering superior protection against whitefly and spidermites in vegetable crops and cotton, the other providing high efficacy in the control of biting and sucking insects in crops such as corn, oilseed rape, sugar beet and cereals, even when applied as a seed treatment.

Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with current annual sales of some EUR 6.0 billion, is one of the world's leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, seeds and green biotechnology, as well as non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of 22,000 and is represented in 122 countries, ensuring proximity to dealers and consumers.