Bayer issued a press release on June 26, announcing that it is rethinking its strategy over Roundup lawsuits and has hired legal help to guide the company’s management of the cases.
According to the press release issued, Bayer’s supervisory board established a new committee to “intensely monitor” the Roundup litigation. The committee is composed of shareholders, employee representatives, and supervisory board members. The board has also retained attorney John H. Beisner to advise on handling the mass tort litigation and the mediation process, which according to a federal judge would help avoid the need for thousands of individual cases.
Bayer still continues to maintain that glyphosate is safe, following the pressure mounting on the company to reach settlements for Roundup claims and investors pushing the company to identify alternative weedkillers. Bayer suffered three high-profile losses, a $78 million verdict last summer, an $80 million verdict earlier this year, and a landmark $2 billion verdict last month, to individuals diagnosed with cancer following Roundup exposure.
Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary, which was acquired one year ago, now face more than 15,000 Roundup lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is presiding over all the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2741; In Re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation) in the Northern District of California.
