The Pesticide That Kills Bugs and Might Help Fight Cancer
Why Germany's most valuable company likes being the last conglomerate of its kind
This article is for subscribers only.
There's a tiny worm that Marijn Dekkers says might embody the future of Bayer AG.
Nematodes, which gnaw at peanut and cotton roots, first drew Bayer's attention for destructive purposes. Researchers devised an insecticide that starves them of oxygen to wipe out a pest blamed for $100 billion in crop damage every year. But when the scientists shared this suffocation approach with pharmaceutical colleagues, a curative potential came into view: a pathway that might also work to throttle cancer cells.