Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Bayer To Pay $10.9B To Settle Lawsuits Over Roundup Cancer Claims
The Washington Post: Roundup Maker Will Pay $10 Million To Settle Cancer Claims
The world’s largest seed and agrochemical maker announced the settlement in a news release on Wednesday, saying it will allocate as much as $9.6 billion to resolve current Roundup litigation. The company said the pool will cover roughly 125,000 claims that allege the product leads to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The company said 75 percent of those cases were resolved as part of Wednesday’s agreement. (Denham, 6/24)
The New York Times: Roundup Maker To Pay $10 Billion To Settle Cancer Suits
When Bayer, the giant German chemical and pharmaceutical maker, acquired Monsanto two years ago, the company knew it was also buying the world’s best-known weedkiller. What it didn’t anticipate was a legal firestorm over claims that the herbicide, Roundup, caused cancer. Now Bayer is moving to put those troubles behind it, agreeing to pay more than $10 billion to settle tens of thousands of claims while continuing to sell the product without adding warning labels about its safety. (Cohen, 6/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Bayer To Pay Up To $10.9 Billion To Settle Lawsuits Over Roundup Weedkiller
Investors have long been waiting for a settlement to bring clarity over how much the litigation will cost Bayer, following its 2018 purchase of U.S. agricultural giant Monsanto Co. The deal brought the company thousands of Roundup-related lawsuits. Three jury-trial losses tanked shares and sparked a revolt among shareholders angry at Bayer’s management for plunging the company into one of the worst crises in its history with the $63 billion Monsanto acquisition. (Bender, Kusisto and Randazzo, 6/24)
AP: Bayer Paying Up To $10.9B To Settle Monsanto Weedkiller Case
Bayer said Wednesday that it will pay up to $10.9 billion to settle litigation over the weedkiller Roundup, which has faced thousands of lawsuits over claims it causes cancer. Bayer said it was also paying up $1.22 billion to settle two additional areas of intense litigation, one involving toxic chemical PCB in water, and one involving dicamba, another weedkiller. (6/24)
Reuters: Bayer Bets On Science In Bid To Prevent Future Roundup Lawsuits: Legal Experts
The company on Wednesday agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to settle about 75% of the 125,000 filed and unfiled claims by Roundup users who say the herbicide caused them to develop a form of blood cancer. But Bayer had to find a separate solution to mitigate the risk of future claims without pulling the product off the shelves. The company decided to make a calculated gamble on the scientific evidence which so far has overwhelmingly supported its claim that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is safe for agricultural use. (Bellon, 6/25)
