“Malaria is one of the biggest killers in the developing world. Children, pregnant women, people living in emergency situations and people living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to this devastating disease. Malaria costs Africa US$ 12 billion per year and holds back economic and social development”, says Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Secretary of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM). The RBM Partnership was launched in 1998 by UNICEF, the WHO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank and has since grown to over 90 multilateral, bilateral, non-governmental and private sector organizations.

According to the WHO, malaria is the most dangerous tropical disease worldwide, causing more than one million deaths per year. It is rampant in the poorest regions of the world, and particularly in Africa, where malaria is the leading cause of death for children under the age of five.

To protect people against malaria, efforts focus on targeting the Anopheles mosquito that carries the disease. According to the RBM, the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets reduces the child mortality rate by about 20 percent. With its deltamethrin-based products K-O TAB® and K-Othrine®, Bayer CropScience offers insecticidal impregnating agents for mosquito nets.

New manufacturing facility for net treatments in Amata, Thailand

Bayer CropScience has also helped to develop a process that enables the nets to be treated directly during their manufacture. In Thailand the company has entered a local partnership with the USAID initiative NetMark and mosquito net producer Tana Netting Company. The first manufacturing facility was brought on stream in Amata, Thailand, in September, allowing mass treatment of finished nets for the first time. The process offers another advantage too: “The major advance offered by this new technology is its ability to be transferred to other existing net manufacturers”, says David McGuire, Director of NetMark. “This is a breakthrough that has the potential to save millions of African lives.”

Demand for these Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) has increased dramatically in recent years, and producers have been unable to keep up over the short term. Next year an estimated 120 million nets will be needed worldwide, while only estimated 45 to 60 million will be produced. Bayer CropScience has therefore developed a product that enables retrospective impregnation of previously untreated nets, which account for the majority of available nets in Africa. The product, which is called K-O TAB® 1-2-3, contains a substance that binds the active ingredient to the nets. The application is specifically designed for end users. Following treatment, nets can be washed more than 20 times without losing their insecticidal action.

To counteract the constant threat of the Anopheles mosquito becoming resistant to insecticides, Bayer CropScience has initiated a program under which the substances and substance classes in widespread use – dichlor-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), bendiocarb and pyrethroids – are deployed according to a specific rotation principle. The program has been implemented successfully in the southern part of Africa and Latin America and is planned to be in effect in 2006 in India, where resistance to DDT and pyrethroids were reported in four different regions and 22 provinces. The rotation program is designed to help these substance classes regain their efficacy.

Malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium spp. P. falciparum is the most dangerous species, accounting for more than 80 percent of infections and 90 percent of malaria deaths worldwide. It is transmitted to humans by the Anopheles mosquito, which can be effectively controlled by insecticides. If a malaria infection goes untreated, patients risk fever, coma and death.

The Public Health Journal can be downloaded from the Bayer CropScience web site on (http://www.bayercropscience.com/bayer/cropscience/cscms.nsf/id/Publications).

Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 6 billion, is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. 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 about 19,000 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.newsroom.bayercropscience.com

Monheim, November 16, 2005

Contact:
Annette Josten, phone: +49 2173 38-5788
E-Mail: annette.josten@bayercropscience.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer CropScience AG management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future consolidated results, financial situation, development or performance of the Bayer CropScience AG or our parent company, Bayer AG, and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer AG's public reports filed with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including Bayer AG's Form 20-F). Neither Bayer AG nor Bayer CropScience AG assumes any liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.