© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Brand of Bayer AG is pictured on the annual outcomes information convention of the German drugmaker in Leverkusen, Germany February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Picture
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – Bayer (OTC:) has received a trial in a lawsuit introduced by a California man who mentioned he developed most cancers from publicity to its Roundup weedkiller, ending what had been a five-trial shedding streak for the corporate in trials over comparable claims.
The decision was handed down on Friday by a jury in San Benito County, California Superior Court docket, Bayer introduced. The corporate mentioned in a press release that the decision was “consistent with the evidence in this case that Roundup does not cause cancer and is not responsible for the plaintiff’s illness.”
Legal professionals for plaintiff Bruce Jones didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Like most plaintiffs in Roundup lawsuits, Jones alleged that the product induced him to develop a type of most cancers referred to as non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Round 165,000 claims have been made towards the corporate for private accidents allegedly brought on by Roundup, which Bayer acquired as a part of its $63 billion buy of U.S. agrochemical firm Monsanto (NYSE:) in 2018.
Earlier than its current string of losses, which produced verdicts towards the corporate totaling greater than $2 billion, Bayer had received 9 consecutive trials, that means it has now received 10 of the final 15 trials. Additional instances are anticipated to be tried within the coming yr.
Bayer is interesting the verdicts towards it, which embrace giant punitive damages awards which are more likely to be lowered as a result of they exceed U.S. Supreme Court docket steerage.
The losses had led some buyers to query Bayer’s authorized technique in defending the Roundup instances. The corporate mentioned final month that it will proceed preventing the instances in court docket and had “no appetite to write humongous checks” to settle them.
In 2020, Bayer settled many of the then-pending Roundup instances for as much as $9.6 billion however didn’t get a settlement protecting future instances. Greater than 50,000 claims stay pending.
