Speaking in Leverkusen at the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant's Spring Financial News Conference, chairman and chief executive Werner Wenning, said: "We have a weak position in healthcare in India and we're thinking about how we can improve it through external growth. We aim to grow our sales in India from Euro 350m to €1bn by 2015."
Arthur Higgins, chairman and chief executive of Bayer Healthcare, added: "Our white space is India; our traditional pharmaceutical and healthcare business there needs to be stronger. We won't be able to grow organically; by forming alliances, however, we can do it."
Higgins said Bayer wanted to set the momentum going to get into the top 10 pharmaceutical firms in India by 2015.
Sales at Bayer's pharmaceuticals business grew by 4.4% in 2009 to €10.5bn, showing an "encouraging improvement" in Asia/Pacific and Latin America/Africa/Middle East, which more than offset a slight decline in North America.
The company said sales of cancer drug Nexavar had developed "particularly well", increasing by 28% on a currency-adjusted basis, and there is scope to grow this further by looking at its use for more types of cancer.
Other top-selling products include Aspirin Cardio, to protect against heart attacks, and the anti-hypertensive drug Kinzal/Pritor. Sales of the YAZ family of oral contraceptives and multiple sclerosis drug Betaferon/Betaseron also recorded strong growth.
EBITDA in the healthcare business, which includes pharmaceuticals and consumer health, climbed by 7.5% to €4.5bn.
Bayer is also making progress with the new anti-thrombotic drug Xarelto, which it is developing with partner Johnson & Johnson.
Wenning said the results of important study data are expected during the course of 2010 and Bayer would respond to the US Food & Drug Administration's request for more information relating to the use of the drug in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery by June.
He said Bayer continues to be optimistic about Xarelto's use in chronic indications, where there are potential sales of €2bn.
"We brought 2009 to a successful close and now intend to build on the progress we made in previous years," said Wenning, who expects the economic recovery to continue in 2010. However, the impact of the global business downturn in 2009 will continue to be felt for some time to come, he said.
The company plans to increase sales in 2010 by more than 5%, with EBITDA before special items expected to increase to €7bn.
To safeguard Bayer's long-term growth, it plans capital expenditure of €.4bn in 2010, €460m of this will be in the healthcare business. A budget of €2.9bn has again been allocated for research and development.
The company said it had no plans to make any job cuts in 2010 and would be adding staff in emerging markets.
Wenning, who will hand over the reins to Marijn Dekkers in October, said he was happy with what he had achieved in 44 years with Bayer, but added that "nothing is ever finished".
When Dekkers was appointed there was speculation that he would introduce sweeping changes to Bayer, but he stressed that it was "premature" to talk about any future M&A activity.
"It is very clear that all three Bayer subgroups (healthcare, crop science and material science) are competitive and well positioned," Dekkers said. "I don't think there's a burning platform and we can take the time over the next few years to see what develops. My aim is simply to make sure that Bayer can be further developed."
