Bayer Announces New Head of Research and Development

Posted by |21 February 2012

Monheim – In a move to integrate a fuller range of R&D activities in its crop protection, bioscience and environmental science units, Dr. C. David Nicholson will join Bayer CropScience as a member of the executive committee.

Dr. Nicholson, who previously worked in biopharmaceutical research for Merck Inc., is joining Bayer CropScience to drive the refocusing of its research and development activities so that it can better respond to the future development of global markets. The new R&D function will bring together about 4,300 scientists from the company’s key research centers and development sites across the globe. With an annual budget of more than $934.7 million (2010), Bayer CropScience ranks among the most research-intensive companies in the industry.

“Innovating at the interface of biology and chemistry for the benefit of our customers is a key element of the Bayer CropScience growth strategy going forward”, says Bayer CropScience CEO Sandra Peterson in a statement. “By bringing our R&D capabilities together in one global organization, we aim at delivering superior solutions that draw on the entire spectrum of agricultural innovation from genetics and molecular biology over chemical research and trait discovery to global product development and regulatory affairs.”

As part of its integrated research approach, scientists in the fields of agricultural chemistry and seed technology are increasingly collaborating to pool the knowledge acquired through chemical, biological and genetic research and field development, aligning this expertise to the company’s long-term research objectives and business strategies for the various crops in its portfolio.

Born in the UK, Dr. Nicholson has graduated in pharmacology, earning his B.Sc. from the University of Manchester and his Ph.D. from the University of Wales. He has been employed in research and development in the biopharmaceutical industry since 1978, and most recently held executive positions in R&D at Merck Inc. and before that with Schering-Plough and Organon in the US. Nicholson has also spent more than 10 years of his professional career in Germany and the Netherlands.