In the wake of thousands of lawsuits brought by cancer patients and their estates, the company that makes Roundup herbicide has settled the majority of current and upcoming lawsuits over $10 billion.
Bayer, The German-based company which acquired the Agrochemical giant Monsanto in 2018, announced the announcement on Wednesday. This comes after many years of lawsuits from people living with cancer who asserted that Roundup resulted in the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and claimed that Monsanto was not adequately warning customers about the danger.
Settlement of Roundup litigation throughout the US “will bring closure to approximately 75% of the current Roundup litigation involving approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall,” Bayer stated in a press release.
“The company will pay $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve the current Roundup litigation, including an allowance expected to cover unresolved claims and $1.25 billion to support a separate class agreement to address potential future litigation.”
The company has said that future cases could be subject to a class agreement subject to approval by the courts.
Bayer stated that the agreement to settle “contains no admission of liability or wrongdoing.”
In the millions of Roundup lawsuits filed in state or federal courts, three lawsuits have gone to trial: from people living with cancer Dewayne Johnson, Edwin Hardeman and Alva and Alberta Pilliod.
In all of these trials, jurors supported the plaintiffs and said Roundup was a significant cause of cancer in the plaintiffs.
In each case, the jury awarded plaintiffs hundreds of millions ( or billions) of dollars. However, the judges then reduced those amounts because they felt excessive.
Bayer has filed appeals against the verdicts of each of the three trials. The company on Wednesday announced that the requests “will continue through the appeals process and are not covered by the settlement.”
“The company needs to continue these cases as the appeals will provide legal guidance going forward,” Bayer said.
For Roundup, Bayer said it would continue to market the weed killer since it is adamant in its previous claims that it is secure when used according to the directions.
Patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma began to sue Monsanto in droves following a 2015 World Health Organization report suggesting Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, could cause cancer.
The report, compiled by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, stated that Glyphosate is ” probably carcinogenic to humans.“
However, Monsanto has always maintained that Roundup doesn’t create cancer and has said that they believe that the IARC report is vastly outnumbered by studies that claim Glyphosate is non-hazardous.
“Leading health regulators around the world have repeatedly concluded that Bayer’s glyphosate-based herbicides can be used safely as directed and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic … including more than 100 studies (the) EPA considered relevant to its cancer risk analysis, and more than 800 safety studies overall submitted to regulators,” Bayer has claimed.
The American Cancer Society declared that the cause is unknown for most cases of lymphoma.
However, critics question whether Monsanto enjoyed close relationships with regulators, such as Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental Protection Agency.
An investigation in 2017 by CNN investigation revealed internal emails from Monsanto discussing the communications to the EPA official.
In a letter from 2015, a Monsanto executive stated in an email that an EPA representative at the time suggested that they help stop another agency’s review of Glyphosate. The executive wrote, “ If I can kill this, I should get a medal.”
A Monsanto spokesperson said at the time that the company hasn’t given gifts, paid for or made any other gesture to gain favour with the EPA.
