Bayer is taking action against glyphosate defects in the US

Pharmaceuticals and agriculture group Bayer plans to appeal the ruling in the US for billions in damages. “The judgment will not stand and we will certainly appeal against it,” Bayer said when asked yesterday. On Friday, a jury ordered the company to pay more than US$1.5 billion (€1.38 billion) in the glyphosate trial.

Three former users of the herbicide Roundup were awarded corresponding payments. They blamed the controversial product for causing their cancer.

A jury in federal court in Jefferson City, Missouri, awarded a total of $61.1 million in compensatory damages and $500 million in punitive damages to James Drager, Valori Gunther and Dan Anderson. In the United States, juries often award large sums to plaintiffs, which judges then reduce.

Bayer speaks of “strong arguments.”

According to Bayer, only the amount of punitive damages violates the US Constitution. “Unlike previous cases, courts in recent cases have improperly allowed plaintiffs to misrepresent regulatory and scientific facts,” the group said in a statement.

Bayer has “strong arguments” to revise the recent rulings. The group has won nine of the last 13 court cases and settled the majority of cases. “We will continue to defend robust scientific and regulatory evidence in court if required on appeal,” the agency said. Bayer was adamant about the safety of glyphosate.

Bayer took matters into its own hands over the glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup in 2018 with its $60 billion acquisition of Monsanto. In the same year, the first judgment came against the company, which led to a wave of lawsuits in the United States. In 2020, Bayer launched a billion-dollar plan to settle most lawsuits — without admitting liability. Bayer has already processed most of the cases.