The German pharmaceutical and agricultural group Bayer suffered another defeat in the glyphosate tests in the US. A jury in Philadelphia ordered the company on Tuesday to pay $3.5 million (€3.2 million) to a woman who attributed her cancer to Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller.
Bayer plans to appeal the verdict. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruling could increase investor pressure on the company to quickly resolve thousands of similar Roundup lawsuits to avoid further major court rulings.
Recently lost four lawsuits
Before the ruling in Philadelphia, the German pharmaceutical and agricultural group had lost four lawsuits in a short time – the most recent with a payment of 1.56 billion dollars (1.45 billion euros) – after Bayer had previously won nine lawsuits in a row. Bayer has announced that it will appeal.
Like most plaintiffs in Roundup cases, Pennsylvania resident Kelly Martel alleged in the recent Philadelphia case that she contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a malignant disease of the lymphatic tissue, from exposure to the herbicide Roundup.
There are still 52,000 lawsuits pending
According to Bayer, 52,000 of the approximately 165,000 lawsuits filed were still open. The company took the lawsuits into its own hands when it acquired glyphosate developer Monsanto. Bayer had always rejected the allegations against the herbicide.
Authorities around the world classified the drug as non-carcinogenic. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) cancer research agency IARC assessed the active ingredient as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015.
Source: Krone
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