Bayer to spend over 25 billion euros in crop science R&D over 10 years

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German drugmaker Bayer <BAYGn.DE> on Tuesday said it is to spend more than 25 billion euros ($27.22 billion) on research and development at its agriculture unit over the next 10 years.

"Agriculture needs to feed a growing world without starving the planet," Liam Condon, board member and head of the crop science division, said at a company event.

Investments in crop science unit last year, on a pro forma basis, amounted to 2.3 billion euros, Bayer said.

Activities within its development pipeline of breeding, biotech, crop protection and environmental science had an annual peak sales potential of 30 billion euros, of which 17 billion were expected to come from recent and near-term product launches, it said.

($1 = 0.9184 euros)

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Vera Eckert, editing by Tassilo Hummel)