Bayer AG

Bayer, IG Farben and World War II: Slave Labor and Deadly Gas

Bayer (along with BASF and Hoechst) was an original member of the IG Farben group. During WWII, IG Farben built a synthetic rubber and oil plant complex called Monowitz close to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Inmates worked as slave labour for IG Farben, (Surviving Auschwitz) and when they were too weak to work they were killed in the gas chambers. IG Farben subsidiary Degesch manufactured Zyklon B, the gas used in the concentration camp gas chambers.

Bayer head Carl Duisberg personally propagated the concept of forced labour during WW1. The company placed itself under a large burden of guilt due to its heavy involvement in the planning, preparation and implementation of both world wars. The International War Crimes Tribunal pronounced the company guilty for its share of responsibility in the war and the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship.

On 29 July 1948, sentences for mass murder and slavery were handed down at the Nuremberg trials to twelve Farben executives. The longest sentence of only seven years was dealt out was to Dr. Fritz ter Meer, a top executive and scientist on the IG Farben managing board.

After the war, IG Farben separated into three giant corporations: Bayer, Hoechst and BASF. On 1 August 1963, Bayer celebrated its 100th anniversary at the Cologne fairgrounds. The opening speech was delivered by Dr. Fritz ter Meer, not only out of prison but - a convicted mass murderer - elevated to the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bayer.

More than eight million people had to do slave work for the Nazi war industry, and none ever received compensation from the companies or the government. David Fishel, one of the few survivors of the camp, sued the companies for compensation. When he was 13 he was forced to work for IG Farben carrying 50-kilo bags of coal and cement when he weighed only 75 pounds.

Bayer, IG Farben and Human Experiments

IG Farben also conducted experiments on humans. Eva Mozes Kor, among the 1,500 sets of twins experimented on by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, claims that IG Farben monitored and supervised medical experiments at the Nazi concentration camp where she was interned. She claims the experiments involved toxic chemicals that IG Farben (Bayer) provided. In some of the experiments, the lawsuit states, prisoners were injected with germs known to cause diseases, "to test the effectiveness of various drugs" manufactured by IG Farben. Mengele conducted genetic experiments there in an effort to create a super race of blonde, blue-eyed Aryans who would be born in multiple births. Both Kor and her sister survived their 10-month ordeal in the concentration camp and were liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945. They were nearly 10 years old. According to Irwin Levin (Kor's Lawyer), IG Farben paid Nazi officials during World War II for access to those confined in the camps and collaborated in Nazi experiments as a form of research and development. The lawsuit sought unspecified punitive damages and the recovery of profits it maintains IG Farben (Bayer) earned as a result of such research.

Mass-Producing Heroin

In 1898, Bayer trademarked the opiate diacetylmorphine, giving it the name heroin. Although the chemist C.R. Wright discovered the mixture of morphine and acetic acid, Bayer was the first company to mass-produce it. Bayer began an advertising campaign in 1900, praising the product across the globe in 12 languages, and sending thousands of free samples to doctors. Bayer advertised heroin as a cough medicine for children, saying it was harmless and even that it helped cure colic. Ironically, methadone the synthetic morphine substitute commonly used to treat heroin addiction was developed by Hoescht branch of IG Farben during the WW2 as Dolophine.[244]

Ciproxin and Dangerous Human Trials

Bayer placed hundreds of patients at risk of potentially fatal infections by failing to disclose crucial safety information to six hospitals at the start of a UK drug trial. Bayer's own research as early as 1989 showed that the antibiotic ciproflaxin (sold as Ciproxin) reacted badly with various opiate-based sedatives or "pre-meds" commonly given to patients ahead of surgery. Research showed that the drug was not properly absorbed by many patients, impairing its ability to kill bacteria and placing the patients at risk of sometimes fatal infections.

This information was not revealed to the hospitals before up to 650 people had undergone surgery, violating their human rights. The trials resulted in nearly half of the people at one test centre in Southampton developing potentially life-threatening infections. At least one patient died, and another developed an infection so severe that his relatives were initially told he would not survive. Nearly half the patients at Southampton Hospitals Trust developed post-operative wound infections requiring emergency therapy. Infection and mortality rates at the five other trial sites were never revealed on grounds of "confidentiality"

Stephen Karran, a retired consultant surgeon from Southhampton, was concerned about the trial. He pointed out the flaw in the earliest possible stage, and contacted the press after the trial went ahead unaltered anyway. Bayer has confirmed that it knew of absorption problems with the drug before the study began. However, they still used the dangerous drug for two years, are still keeping trial results secret, and have not paid compensation to the relatives of patients injured or killed in the course of its unapproved trials.

Meanwhile, Ciproxin has been found to lead to tendon disorders or ruptures. The FDA staff stated that the agency "will update the labeling [package insert] for all marketed fluoroquinolones to include a warning about the possibility of tendon rupture." However, this has not been done.

Bayer also continues to offer aspirin packaged specifically for children in the 3rd World, despite the fact that experts warn of the many risks involved in the use of acetylsalicylic acid for children. The safety warnings recommending limited use to children, found in Germany and other countries, are not found in developing countries. Bayer even sells "Children's Aspirin." Bayer has announced that although the claims could not be proven, they have "made changes" where the impression could be given that it is a consumer advertisement. In a letter from Bayer to the Medical Initiative in July 1997, Bayer insisted that there was no more consumer advertising for children's aspirin in South America. However, in October 1997 a one page, colour advertisement for aspirina para ninos (aspirin for children) appeared in the daily newspaper Prensa libre of Guatemala.

HIV and HEP C Contaminated Blood Preparations

Bayer's American subsidiary, Cutter, has been sued for infecting haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C with contaminated blood preparations. The contraction of these diseases by thousands of people in the USA, Germany and Japan could have been prevented, if the companies had used precautionary tests and had heated the blood. In the US, 6200 haemophiliacs contracted HIV through contaminated blood and eventually received $100,000 each.

Bayer paid 10 Taiwanese citizens, who were infected with the HIV virus via Bayer blood products, a total of $60,000 each. 43 other victims turned down the offer with the claim that Bayer had paid higher amounts in other countries.

Many lawsuits have been filed by those who contracted hepatitis C, including the mother of a 12-year-old boy who sought $143 million in damages and alleged that the defendants knew they were providing risky coagulants to her son and other haemophiliacs more than a decade before their infections. The suit states that the defendants improperly collected plasma from groups at high risk for hepatitis C contamination, including prison inmates, drug users and gay men.

Eventually Eva Kor and various others were paid out of a fund put up by the German government and the companies. Bayer gave 100 million German Marks to the fund. The entire fund (totalling 10 billion German Marks) was a result of various American lawsuits - without the loss of reputation in the US the companies would never have agreed.

Bayer and Apartheid-Era South Africa

One of the largest chrome factories in the world began production as a joint company of Bayer and Dow Chemicals. Bayer, the second largest chrome manufacturer in the world, closed its chrome processing plant in Leverkusen, Germany. Due to the country's large chrome deposits, the company has processed this raw material in South Africa since 1973, and it even has its own mine. The idea of an apartheid government apparently did not present any problems to Bayer, as the government provided many black workers who were cheap and had no rights. The workers suffered many health risks during chrome production, including respiratory illnesses, skin tumours and even lung cancer.

Bayer and the Congo War

A report commissioned by the UN Secretary General stated that the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) centered on the control of five mineral resources, including colombite-tantalite or coltan. Coltan is a hardening agent for metal used in the manufacture of electrical products. In October a report listed H.C. Starck (a then wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG, sold in 2007), as the buyer of over 80% of the coltan originating in the DRC.[225] By purchasing coltan from one or other of the warring factions in the DRC, H.C. Starck have been fuelling the two-year conflict. The fighting has killed over 250,000 people, and a million people have been displaced in East Congo.