Pharma: Bayer receives US approval for important stroke drug

Dusseldorf, New York. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Bayer's new stroke treatment Asundexian, thereby securing one of the pharmaceutical company's most important growth drivers. The Leverkusen team announced this on Tuesday night. The drug is said to significantly reduce the risk of a second stroke. It is the first product in a new class of active ingredients to be available in the important US market. On the stock exchange, Bayer shares temporarily rose by two percent to an annual high of 57.78 euros on Tuesday.

With Asundexian, Bayer wants to replace the sales that generics are currently taking away from the previous bestseller Xarelto. "We are far from reaching the end of our growth in the USA. Asundexian is an essential building block in this strategy," says US boss Sebastian Guth, who is also responsible for the pharmaceutical business in all markets as Chief Operating Officer.

The USA is the group's largest and fastest-growing pharmaceutical market. According to Guth, Bayer now generates 35 percent of its pharmaceutical sales there. When he came to the US in 2018, it was around 20 percent.