"Years After Monsanto Deal, Bayer’s Roundup Bills Keep Piling Up"

"Juries recently awarded plaintiffs more than $2 billion in damages tied to Roundup, the weedkiller that has been linked to cancer. Bayer is fighting back."

"Three years after Bayer agreed to pay $10 billion to settle claims that its weedkiller, Roundup, caused cancer, juries continue to award plaintiffs in additional cases billions of dollars in damages, even as the German drug and chemicals giant insists it will continue its fight in court.

In the past two months, in four separate cases, juries have awarded more than $2 billion in damages to a handful of roughly 50,000 claims that weren’t covered by the 2020 settlement. The $10 billion agreement is one of the largest in history.

Bayer has set aside an additional $6 billion, which the company has said is enough to cover pending lawsuits as well as potential future ones. But analysts and investors worry Bayer could be on the hook for billions more, threatening the 160-year-old company’s future.

Some of the country’s most high profile plaintiffs’ lawyers — including a team that won an estimated $1 billion settlement in 2021 from Johnson & Johnson involving its antipsychotic drug Risperdal — are representing thousands of individuals seeking damages from Bayer. Plaintiffs have at least a dozen cases on court dockets in the coming months."

Maureen Farrell reports for the New York Times December 6, 2023.

Source: NYTimes, 12/07/2023