Bayer wins fifth Roundup verdict in a row after some high-profile losses
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Roundup maker Bayer AG has won five jury verdicts in a row in trials that contended its Roundup weed killer caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In its latest win, jurors in state court in St. Louis ruled for Bayer last week in a trial involving three plaintiffs, report Reuters and Law.com. One plaintiff was a woman from the Seattle area and the others were two men from Florida.
Bayer said in a statement that the verdict is consistent with “overwhelming evidence from four decades of scientific studies concluding that Roundup can be used safely and is not carcinogenic.”
Bayer has been targeted in cancer lawsuits since buying Roundup maker Monsanto Co. in 2018. The suits claim Roundup ingredient glyphosate is to blame for users’ non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Bayer’s successes follow high-profile verdicts for plaintiffs in recent years, including a 2019 case in which jurors awarded $2 billion in punitive damages to plaintiffs Alva and Alberta Pilliod, who used Roundup for 35 years on their property. A judge later reduced the award to $86.7 million. The U.S. Supreme declined to hear Bayer’s appeal in June, according to previous Reuters coverage.
Also in June, the Supreme Court refused to hear another Roundup case in which jurors awarded $80 million to Edwin Hardeman, which was reduced to $25 million.
Bayer had argued in those cases that federal regulatory approval of Roundup foreclosed any right to sue.
Bayer agreed to settle about 100,000 pending Roundup suits in 2020 for about $10 billion. But its proposal to pay $2 billion to settle future claims failed to win court approval.
Last year the company said it will end sales of glyphosate-based weedkillers for the U.S. residential lawn and garden market in 2023. It will continue sales to farmers and professionals, however.
