Bayer AG is on a winning run as it tackles the remaining claims involving its Roundup weedkiller, a turnaround after multiple juries found it liable for cancer and the firm put up almost $16 billion for settlements.
In September, a St. Louis jury ruled in favor of Bayer in a trial involving several plaintiffs, giving the company its fifth consecutive trial victory as it seeks to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging that Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide, caused cancer in homeowners, landscapers, and farmers.
Bayer argues that Roundup is safe to use, citing regulatory evaluations conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies that found it did not pose a cancer risk. Between 2018 and 2019, the German corporation lost three trials brought by Roundup users who claimed the product caused their cancer and that the company failed to sufficiently warn about Roundup's hazards.
In a recent interview, Bayer's CEO stated that the company's recent victories in trials across a range of jurisdictions shift momentum in Bayer's favor.
In August 2018, Bayer lost the first trial over Roundup's potential cancer risk, just after completing its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto, which created Roundup as well as genetically altered crops meant to tolerate the pesticide. Uncertainty over the culpability and growing litigation expenses have enraged investors and dragged on Bayer's share price, which has dropped about 50% since the start of August 2018.
In June, the United States Supreme Court declined to consider Bayer's appeal, which might have halted most of the case.
Bayer stated that it had handled around 108,000 of the 141,000 overall Roundup claims. Legal observers believe Bayer's recent trial victories have given the business a better position as it attempts to resolve the hundreds of complaints that remain.
According to plaintiffs' attorneys and legal observers, Bayer's recent trial success stems from focusing on the scientific question of whether Roundup causes cancer and delivering more strong facts to jurors. According to the experts, the firm has also been more active in contesting plaintiffs' assertions about their specific usage of the medication.
Bayer has tried to have courts accept split trials concentrating initially on the science in six of its eight trials. If jurors decide that Roundup can cause cancer, they will consider the company's responsibility. In two instances, judges authorized the separation, and Bayer won one of them.
In the other cases, the company has argued that employees' behaviour, such as emails that plaintiffs' lawyers argue demonstrate the company's resistance to conducting more scientific studies, is a red herring because the product does not cause cancer in the first place, according to counsel representing thousands of claimants.
