FRANKFURT: Bayer has hired the head of Nestle's baby food business to run its embattled consumer health division, replacing Erica Mann in March next year.

Bayer has appointed Nestle's Heiko Schipper, aged 48, to the board of management effective March 1, 2018, the German drugs and pesticides maker said in a statement on Wednesday.

Erica Mann would then leave the company, before the end of her current contract, which would have run until the end of 2018, Bayer added.

Bayer's non-prescription drugs unit has been grappling with a decline in sales in the United States.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)