Bayer has prevailed in a trial. A Californian man who claimed to have developed cancer as a result of exposure to the company’s Roundup weedkiller filed the complaint. This victory ended a five-trial losing skid for Bayer in trials over allegations comparable to the one in question.
Bayer reported that a jury in the Superior Court of San Benito County, California, rendered the verdict on Friday. When asked about the ruling, the firm issued a statement stating that it was “consistent with the evidence in this case that Roundup does not cause cancer and is not responsible for the plaintiff’s illness.”
In response to requests for comment, the attorneys for the plaintiff, Bruce Jones, did not immediately react. Like the majority of people who have filed claims against Roundup, Jones claimed that the herbicide was responsible for the development of a kind of cancer known as non-Hodgkin lymphoma on his body.
In 2018, Bayer paid $63 billion to acquire the American agricultural company Monsanto. As a result, there have been roughly 165,000 claims against the company for alleged personal injuries brought on by Roundup.
Bayer had won nine straight trials before its recent streak of defeats, which resulted in verdicts against the corporation totaling more than $2 billion. This means that Bayer has now won ten of the previous fifteen cases. In the following year, it is anticipated that further cases will be held for trial.
Bayer is challenging the verdicts that were rendered against it, which include several awards of punitive damages that are likely to be lowered since they exceed the instructions provided by the United States Supreme Court.
Some investors had begun questioning Bayer’s legal approach in defending the Roundup litigation due to the losses this company has sustained. Last month, the firm said it would continue to defend the lawsuits in court and has “no appetite to write humongous checks” to settle them. Both of these statements were made.
In 2020, Bayer reached a deal for up to $9.6 billion for the majority of the Roundup lawsuits that were still ongoing, but they could not reach a settlement that included future cases. Over 50,000 claims are still waiting to be processed.
