While German agrochemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer faces mounting lawsuits in the US over its herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate, the company’s development department is already working on an alternative. “We are already testing this new substance on real plants,” says CEO Bill Anderson in a newspaper interview.
The goal is to launch the new product in 2028. It is the first groundbreaking innovation in this field in 30 years, Anderson said in the online edition of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.
‘New approaches’ to legal disputes have been announced
Glyphosate was developed by the American agricultural chemical company Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018 for more than 60 billion dollars (about 55 billion euros). Since then, expensive legal disputes have saddled the Leverkusen-based company. In the US, Bayer is facing tens of thousands of claims for damages due to alleged health damage caused by the use of glyphosate. Investors have long criticized the company’s failure to draw a line under the glyphosate problem.
In the interview, Anderson also announced “new approaches” to resolve the approximately 54,000 outstanding legal disputes currently continuing “inside and outside the courtroom.” Authorities around the world classified the drug as not carcinogenic. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) cancer research agency IARC assessed the active ingredient as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. The courts have so far ruled differently. In addition to several acquittals, the company was also ordered to pay billions in damages.
The European Commission has extended the approval of glyphosate
In November, the European Commission renewed its approval of glyphosate. The Brussels authority emphasized that this was done, among other things, on the basis of scientific analyzes and that there would be new requirements and restrictions on the use of the pesticide. Several European NGOs are contesting the re-approval of the controversial herbicide glyphosate. The pesticide action network PAN Europe and partner organizations have submitted an application to the European Commission for an internal review of the reapproval.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
