Bayer to Scale Back Health Deals Amid Push to Pay Down Debt (1)

Bayer AG plans to push pause on some of its pharmaceutical dealmaking, focusing instead on reducing the high debt load the company still faces after its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto.

The company won’t seek pharma and biotech deals toward the top end of a target range of €1 billion to €5 billion ($1 billion to $5 billion), head of pharmaceuticals Stefan Oelrich said in an interview on Monday on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. That marks a reversal of comments he made at the same meeting a year ago. Bayer now has built ...