Bayer's Ohio Plant Won't Produce Until 2031 as Pipeline and Financing Moves Reshape the Story

Bayer's 200-acre New Albany site is set for 2031, with drug manufacturing in 2034, as it names a new CMO and sells Stivarga rights.

Bayer is betting that a 200-acre site in New Albany, Ohio, will anchor its North American pharmaceutical ambitions — but the payoff is still years away. According to Bayer COO Sebastian Guth, the facility is scheduled to come online in 2031, with finished-drug manufacturing following in 2034. The plant will combine active ingredient production with final drug formulation under one roof, a setup the company frames as central to securing both US and international supply.

The long runway underscores the peculiar rhythm of industrial investment, which moves on its own clock regardless of the political calendar. President Donald Trump claimed credit for the project under his tariff policy, asserting that the levies have already drawn hundreds of billions of dollars in industry-wide investment. CEO Bill Anderson, by contrast, emphasized the operational mission behind the build: strengthening access to medicines at home and abroad.

Jobs, Wages and a Doubling Target

The Ohio site is expected to generate roughly 600 permanent, highly skilled positions, with Governor Mike DeWine pegging average salaries well above $100,000. Another 1,500 temporary construction jobs are planned during the build-out. The project sits within a broader push to expand capacity in oncology, cardiology and nephrology — areas Bayer has identified as growth engines. Over the past five years, more than $7 billion has flowed into US pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing capacity, according to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The Ohio plant extends that streak, all in service of a single goal: doubling US revenue by the end of the decade.

A New Chief Medical Officer and a Regulatory Win

Bayer is also rearranging its leadership bench in prescription medicines. On Thursday, the company named Dr. Christoph Koenen as Chief Medical Officer of its pharmaceutical division, effective October 1. Koenen will hold the role alongside his existing duties as head of clinical development and operations — a consolidation designed to steer strategic development programs from a single hand.

That personnel move arrived alongside a regulatory milestone. BlueRock Therapeutics, a Bayer subsidiary, reported on Wednesday that its candidate Lemiretprocel, designated OpCT-001, has received Orphan Drug status from both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for certain inherited retinal diseases. The designation is meant to accelerate therapies for rare conditions and provides procedural support in further clinical trials.

Divestment and a Fresh Round of Refinancing

Portfolio housekeeping has continued in parallel. On September 21, Bayer agreed to sell rights to the cancer drug Stivarga to pharmaceutical company Grünenthal for up to EUR 375 million, with the deal expected to close at the end of 2026 or in early 2027. Two days later, on September 23, management placed hybrid bonds worth EUR 2 billion across two separate tranches, lifting the total outstanding volume of these subordinated notes to EUR 6.55 billion.

Shares Give Back Recent Gains

The market has taken a dimmer view in the short term. Bayer closed Friday at EUR 45.02, capping a 10 percent decline over seven days. Even so, the stock remains comfortably in positive territory for the year, up 22 percent since January. It is trading 4.5 percent above its 200-day moving average of EUR 43.09 — a level that suggests the longer-term recovery narrative, however gradual, is still intact.