Bayer hires Reinhardt to head health unit

Bayer AG hired Joerg Reinhardt, who was passed over for the top job at Novartis AG in January, to head its health-care unit. Reinhardt will take up the position on August 15, Bayer said in an e-mailed statement today. Bayer HealthCare’s chief executive, Arthur Higgins, will leave the Leverkusen, Germany- based company on April 30. Reinhardt, 54, a German scientist who helped develop Novartis’s vaccine business during a 28-year tenure with the Swiss drugmaker, left Novartis after losing the chief executive officer’s position to Joe Jimenez. “Dr. Reinhardt is a proven expert with many years of experience in the health care business,” Bayer CEO Werner Wenning said in the statement.