Anastasia Hager

Anastasia Hager leads Drug Discovery Sciences at Bayer Pharmaceuticals within R&D, where she and her team are dedicated to identifying the right modalities and molecules to address diseases in oncology, cardiovascular, renal, immunology, and rare disease areas.

She studied Chemistry in Würzburg, Germany, and Berkeley, US, and earned her PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, with a focus on natural product synthesis. She later pursued postdoctoral research in chemical biology at Princeton University, US.

Anastasia joined Bayer in 2015 as a team lead in process chemistry within the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Development department in Wuppertal, working across early to late clinical stages. She was responsible for small molecule drug substance development, covering everything from synthesis and scale-up to CMC coordination and drug product development. By 2019, she took on the role of CMC Project Lead for major late-stage and fast-track assets, leading cross-functional teams and accelerating time-to-market efforts.

Later, as Chief of Staff to the Head of R&D, based in Cambridge, US and Berlin, she shifted from project-specific work to broader strategic and organizational leadership, driving portfolio initiatives and strategy execution.

Today, Anastasia brings her deep scientific expertise and belief in collaborative innovation to lead a global team of scientists committed to transforming science into impactful therapies.