Drug companies, including insulin maker Eli Lilly, thought so, too, but GLP-1 turned out to be an impractical medicine: Once injected into the body, it degrades quickly.
After the drug--sold in the U.S. as Baycol--resulted in dozens of deaths, many thought Bayer would sell its pharmaceuticals division outright to someone like Eli Lilly (nyse: LLY - news - people ) or Switzerland's Roche .