Bayer offers $10b to settle Roundup cancer US lawsuits
Lawyers for agricultural chemical maker Bayer and cancer patients have announced a proposed US$7.25 billion ($10.26 billion) settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed in the US alleging the company failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer.
The deal proposed Tuesday comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in April on Bayer’s claim that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Roundup without a cancer warning would invalidate claims filed in state courts. This situation will not be affected by the proposed solution.
But the agreement will eliminate some of the risks from the eventual Supreme Court decision.
Even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Bayer, patients will be guaranteed to receive settlement money. And Bayer will be protected from potentially larger costs if the high court rules against it.
Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Roundup’s producer Monsanto in 2018, disputes the claim that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
But the company warned that rising legal costs threatened its ability to continue selling the product in U.S. agricultural markets.
“The lawsuit has unceremoniously plagued the company for years, and this settlement leads to its closure,” said Bayer CEO Bill Anderson.
The proposed settlement was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court in Missouri, home of Bayer’s North American crop science division and the state where many of the lawsuits have been filed. The deal still needs court approval.
More than 125,000 plaintiffs have filed Roundup-related legal claims since 2015, according to settlement documents.
Few went to jurors, with 13 verdicts for Bayer and 11 for the plaintiffs, including the US$2.1 billion ($A3 billion) award from a Georgia jury last year.
Others have already been resolved through separate agreements, including two recent settlements that will cover nearly 77,000 of the claims.
The newly proposed nationwide settlement is designed to address most of the remaining lawsuits, as well as additional lawsuits filed in the coming years by people exposed to Roundup before Tuesday.
If too many claimants give up on the proposed solution, Bayer said it reserves the right to cancel it. However, Bayer did not specify how many opt-outs would occur.
The agreement calls for Bayer to make annual payments totaling US$7.25 billion into a special fund for up to 21 years.
The amount of money paid to individuals will vary depending on how they use Roundup, how old they are when they are diagnosed, and the severity of their non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Under the proposed settlement, an agricultural, industrial or lawn worker with long-term exposure to Roundup would receive an average of US$165,000 ($233,594) if they contract an aggressive form of the disease while under age 60.
Meanwhile, a Roundup user diagnosed with a less aggressive form of the disease between the ages of 60 and 77 will receive an average of US$20,000 ($28,314).
“No settlement can eliminate a diagnosis, but this settlement is designed to ensure that patients of today and tomorrow have access to meaningful compensation,” said attorney Christopher Seeger, who will represent current plaintiffs under the settlement.
President Donald Trump’s administration has weighed in on Bayer’s behalf, reversing the position of former President Joe Biden’s administration and clashing with some supporters of the Make America Healthy Again agenda who oppose granting the company the legal immunity it seeks.
The company is simultaneously lobbying state legislatures to protect pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits over the state’s failure to warn that their products comply with federal labeling requirements.
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