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Bayer Continues to Defend Glyphosate Case
USAgNet - 09/20/2018

Bayer AG is stepping up the legal defense of its flagship weed killer, after a verdict in a recent case alleging the chemical causes cancer sent shares down sharply and raised the prospect of costly plaintiff payouts.

Bayer on Tuesday said it wants a California state court judge to overturn the jury's verdict, order a new trial or reduce damages, according to a court filing. The company aims to defeat a $289 million award in August in one of the first of thousands of cases filed by gardeners, farmers and others claiming Bayer's Roundup herbicide gave them cancer.

Dow Jones reports that the jury in that case ruled unanimously in favor of a former groundskeeper who sought to hold the maker of Roundup liable for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The verdict came only two months after the German pharmaceutical and chemical conglomerate sealed its takeover of Monsanto, the U.S. agriculture giant that invented the herbicide.

Bayer shares have dropped about 22% since the verdict to five-year lows. Investors fear a lengthy legal battle and more damage awards could cost the company billions of dollars. Some have questioned whether Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann properly evaluated the risks of taking over Monsanto in a 2016 deal valued at more than $60 billion, the biggest ever by a German company.

Bayer now faces 8,700 plaintiffs in the U.S., up from a few hundred in the spring of 2016. Bayer has said it expects that number to grow.

Bayer entered deal talks with Monsanto in 2016 aware of the problems facing Roundup, people familiar with the negotiations said. Still, there were legal limits to how much information Monsanto could share before antitrust officials approved the merger, Bayer has said.


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