Bayer takes 'huge step' toward resolving Roundup litigation with latest settlements

By Greg Edwards

Bayer's latest settlement of thousands of Roundup legal cases is being called a "huge step" toward ending the company's glyphosate litigation.

The agreements, announced last week, settle about 15,000 U.S. Lawsuits involving Roundup weed killer, which Bayer inherited with its $63 billion purchase of St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. in 2018.

The 15,000 agreements, with lawyers representing Roundup users who said the herbicide caused their cancer, are on top of approximately 32,000 settlements previously announced. Bayer has said it faces about 125,000 total Roundup claims.

The value of the settlements wasn’t disclosed.

It's “a huge step forward for Bayer and Monsanto finding a way through the nightmare that has been Roundup for them,” Brent Wisner, one of the plaintiff lawyers, told Bloomberg.

In June, Bayer said it had agreed to pay $10.9 billion to settle U.S. product liability cases involving Roundup, the herbicide dicamba and environmental contamination cases related to Monsanto-produced polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

In a show of support for the various settlements, Bayer earlier this month extended the contract of CEO Werner Baumann until 2024.

Bayer has repeatedly denied that Roundup causes cancer, citing the U.S. government declarations about the safety of glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient.