Pharmaceutical companies make medicines to help people. Their interest is in allowing people to live longer, happier lives. If you believe these two statements then you shouldn’t ready anymore of this post.

Bayer is most known for its aspirin. The company has done a great job with name branding. If someone were to say aspirin, the immediate thought is Bayer aspirin. The Bayer pharmaceutical company is a German company founded in 1863. They manufacture veterinary drugs, women’s health products, over-the-counter drugs, diabetes care, pesticides, along with polymers and adhesives. The company is worth over $18.57 billion.

Even though best know for its aspirin, Bayer also trademarked heroin in 1898. It was sold as a cough suppressant and a non-addictive substitute for morphine. They also created Phenobarbital and Cipro (antibiotics) and Yaz (birth control). In 2014, Merck’s consumer brands like Claritin, Coppertone and Dr. Scholl’s were purchased by Bayer. Bayer also develops genetically modified crops and pesticides.  What's next will shock you.

Before WWI, Bayer had business in the United States. Because of the conflict, ties with Bayer pharmaceuticals were cut. What most people don’t know about this company is their role in WWII. During the war, Bayer participated in Nazi war crimes. IG Farben, that included BASF, Bayer, Heochest and other German chemical and pharmaceutical companies, was intimately involved with the human experimental atrocities committed in Auschwitz. Prisoners were “purchased for disposal” by the pharmaceutical giant, according to the Auschwitz files. As a matter of fact, their facility in Auschwitz was built by some 300,000 concentration camp slaves. Once the facility was finished, the workers were disposed of. To date, no apology or compensation has been made to the survivors or their families. Those prisoners that some how made it through the experiments, live with the results all those years ago.

After the war, Bayer became independent of IG Farben; and in 1978, Bayer was once again in the United States. This information is difficult to conceive. How can a company, who is suppose to help people, dispose of people so freely? Can money really be the root of this evil? Yet no one speaks of these facts in our history classes. Perhaps it’s too difficult to speak about. It was difficult for me to read about them and then to think about it again as I write this post. Consumers have purchasing power, and I will no longer support a company like Bayer or their subsidiaries.  Whenever possible, go a natural way to heal yourself or a loved one.

Health-bite:  know about the companies you support