The agrochemical maker Bayer and attorneys for cancer patients announced a proposed $7.25bn settlement on Tuesday to resolve thousands of US lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer.
The proposed settlement comes as the US supreme court is preparing to hear arguments on Bayer’s assertion that the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Roundup without a cancer warning should invalidate claims filed in state courts. That case would not be affected by the proposed settlement.
But the settlement would eliminate some of the risk from an eventual and uncertain supreme court ruling – both for Bayer and for patients seeking damages.
Germany-based Bayer, which acquired the Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018, disputes the assertion that the weedkiller’s key ingredient, glyphosate, can cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But the company has warned that mounting legal costs are threatening its ability to continue selling the product in US agricultural markets.
“Litigation uncertainty has plagued the company for years, and this settlement gives the company a road to closure,” Bayer’s CEO, Bill Anderson, said on Tuesday.
The proposed settlement was filed in St Louis circuit court in Missouri, home to Bayer’s North America crop science division and the state where many of the lawsuits have been brought. The settlement still needs the court’s approval.
