Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Jury Awards Couple $2 Billion In Damages In Third Verdict Linking Roundup Weed Killer To Plaintiffs' Cancer
The New York Times: $2 Billion Verdict Against Monsanto Is Third To Find Roundup Caused Cancer
A jury in Oakland, Calif., ordered Monsanto on Monday to pay a couple more than $2 billion in damages after finding that its Roundup weed killer caused their cancer — the third jury to conclude that the company failed to warn consumers of its flagship product’s dangers. Thousands of additional lawsuits against Monsanto, which Bayer acquired last year, are queued up in state and federal courts. The couple, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, used Roundup on their Northern California property for decades. In 2011, Mr. Pilliod, now 76, was given a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2015, his wife, who is 74, learned she had the same disease. (Cohen, 5/13)
Reuters: California Jury Hits Bayer With $2 Billion Award In Roundup Cancer Trial
It was the third consecutive U.S. jury verdict against the company in litigation over the chemical, which Bayer acquired as part of its $63 billion purchase of Monsanto last year. Both other jury verdicts also came in California, one in state court and one in federal court. The jury in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland on Monday said the company was liable for plaintiffs Alva and Alberta Pilliod's contracting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a spokeswoman for the couple said. (5/13)
The Wall Street Journal: In Latest Roundup Herbicide Defeat For Bayer, Jury Awards California Couple $2 Billion
The company now has until August to reevaluate its legal strategy and try to appease investors before the next scheduled trial. That trial will be the first to unfold outside the San Francisco Bay Area, often seen as an unfavorable setting for corporate defendants. It will be in St. Louis, the former headquarters of Monsanto and now home to Bayer’s global seed business. Bayer has appealed a $78.5 million verdict reached in August, the first Roundup case to go to trial. It has said it would appeal the second, a more than $80 million jury award decided in March. Some investors have pushed Bayer to settle the cases soon, though companies facing product-liability claims often bring a dozen or more cases to trial before seriously entering settlement talks. (Randazzo and Bender, 5/13)
CNN: Jury Returns $2 Billion Verdict Against Monsanto For Couple With Cancer
Bayer said the jury was presented with "cherry-picked findings" inconsistent with a statement last month by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which announced that glyphosate was not a carcinogen and posed no public health risk when used as directed. (Nedelman, 5/13)
Bloomberg: Jury Awards $2 Billion To Couple Claiming Monsanto’s Roundup Gave Them Cancer
The jurors agreed that Alva and Alberta Pilliod’s exposure to Roundup used for residential landscaping was a “substantial factor” in their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The jury awarded damages of about $55 million for the couple’s medical bills and pain and suffering on top of the punitive damages. The verdict will be vulnerable to a legal challenge by Bayer because courts have generally held that punitive damages shouldn’t be more than 10 times higher than compensatory damages.Roundup manufacturer Monsanto Co., which Bayer acquired last June, is the named defendant in similar U.S. lawsuits filed by at least 13,400 plaintiffs. (5/13)
KQED: Jury Hits Monsanto With $2 Billion In Roundup Damages
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, concluded in 2015 that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic for humans. Since 2017, the state of California has considered glyphosate a known carcinogen. (Peterson, 5/13)
