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IVSA JOURNAL | Issue 2
Meet Christina Mertens, Head of Global Drug Discovery
Parasiticides at Bayer HealthCare Animal Health Christina Mertens
by
how Bayer HealthCare Animal Health science
can benefit humans. This is the Bayer
difference and where we are unique
compared to other firms.
Christine, what do you do in your job?
In simple words, I’m responsible for filling the
global pipeline with new antiparasitic
medicines. Sounds easy but medicines are
not simply picked from a shelf in a library,
but actually need to be discovered. Drug
Discovery is about screening large compound
libraries to identify biologically active
compounds and optimizing such lead
compounds for intended use. Ultimately, this
delivers a drug candidate, which should have
the desired properties in terms of potency,
spectrum, pharmacokinetic properties and
safety.
My department, Global Drug Discovery
Parasiticides, strongly benefits from Bayer’s
integrated life scien