Jakarta, 18 February 2009 – It is impossible to avoid free radicals in our daily lives.  Free radicals come from human body processes, such as natural respiratory process and the malfunction of human metabolism. However, free radicals mostly come from our environment, examples are: the pollution from vehicles, industry, cigarette smoke, photo copy machinery, air conditioning and bad food diet.

“Our body becomes unhealthy caused by the accumulation of free radicals developed in our body and the environment. The free radicals caused a long and short term sickness. The long term sickness includes: cancer, coronary heart and the short term sickness damages body immune cells and reducing health condition, says dr. Handy Purnama, the Medical Marketing Manager, Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care.

Relate to the phenomenon, PT Bayer Indonesia, Consumer Care division appointed FKM-UI/IAKMI (the Faculty of Community Health, University of Indonesia/The Association of Professional Community Health Care Indonesia) to conduct research on  “The Intervention of Antioxidant Supplementation towards Sick Building Syndrome”.  This research showed Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care commitment to community health.  Bayer believes that to increase the quality of people’s life starts from the quality of their health, says David M. Budi, the General Manager of Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care PT Bayer Indonesia.

The research conducted to 350 employees in 18 different companies in Jakarta, which was held in 6 months period: July – December 2008.  The number of sample was decided based on age analysis from the employees; 30-50 years old.  11 companies were picked randomly whose employees were given antioxidant supplement to be consumed daily for 3 months. Meanwhile, other employees from 7 other companies were not consumed the supplement.

SICK BUILDING SYNDROME (SBS)

People spend 90% of their time in a construction environment, whether inside or outside a building: an office or a house.  People get affected by free radicals that come from inside or outside a building.  The pollutant sources that contaminate the indoor air come from cigarette smoke, ozone from photo copy machinery and printer, volatile organics compounds from carpets, furniture, paints cleaning agents, asses, carbon monoxide and so on and so forth.  When people are affected from that polluted air, they usually get irritation (watery eyes, sneeze, and respiratory infections), asphyxiate, headache, fatigue, flu, and bronchitis (e.g.: Legionella).  The most frequent syndromes are headache, fatigue, watery nose, respiratory infections, hard to concentrate, dry skin and dry cough.  People tend to consider the symptoms as influenza.  Those symptoms are also the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) indicators.

Dr. Budi Haryanto, PhD, MSc says that the risk of getting infected by the SBS is higher to people who live near radiation, physical contacts, biological contacts and chemical contacts.  Especially in your office working environment where you are in highly risk to get affected by SBS, you are in contact for almost 8 hours a day with other employees.

THE RESULT
Based on the research result, 50% of people who work in office building is having Sick Building Syndrome where the frequency of the syndromes are different between those who were intervened by the antioxidant supplement, Redoxon Fortimun, with those who were not. Redoxon Fortimun proved to reduce symptoms like: 49% less headache, 45% less watery eyes, 52% less nasal congestion, 27% less respiratory infection and 41% less fatigue.

The results above show that those employees, who consumed Redoxon Fortimun daily for 3 months in a row, experienced less SBS symptoms. The decrease is significant.  Dr. Budi adds that by consuming Redoxon Fortimun daily for 3 months could decrease the frequent SBS to 65%, which made the incremental employees’ work performance.
Redoxon Fortimun
Redoxon Fortimun is antioxidant for body immune system.  Redoxon Fortimun is formulated with antioxidant nutrition which enriched by vitamin C, vitamin E, Zinc and Selenium.  Redoxon Fortimun optimized body immune system by neutralizing free radicals which could free us from sickness.

About Bayer
The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany.The company combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Diabetes Care and Pharmaceuticals divisions. The pharmaceuticals business operates under the name Bayer Schering Pharma AG. Bayer HealthCare’s aim is to discover and manufacture products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. Find more information at www.bayerhealthcare.com.

About Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care
The Consumer Care Division of Bayer HealthCare LLC, is headquartered in Morristown, N.J. Bayer’s Consumer Care Division is among the largest marketers of over-the-counter medications and nutritional supplements in the world. Some of the most trusted and recognizable brands in the world today come from the Bayer portfolio of products. These include Bayer® Aspirin, Aleve®, Alka-Seltzer Plus®, Bactine®, Citracal®, RID®, Phillips’® Milk of Magnesia, Midol®, Alka-Seltzer®, One-A-Day®, One-A-Day® Prenatal, and Flintstones™ vitamins. 

Forward-looking statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in our public reports filed with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including our Form 20-F). The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to confirm them to future events or developments.

For further information please contact:
Eleonora Situmorang
Communication Specialist
PT Bayer Indonesia, Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care
Tel: (62 21) 570 3661, Fax: (62 21) 573 9693
E-mail: eleonoraveron.situmorang@bayerhealthcare.com