Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Jury Finds Monsanto Liable For California Man's Cancer Because There Was No Product Warning For Weedkiller
The New York Times: Monsanto Ordered To Pay $80 Million In Roundup Cancer Case
A federal jury on Wednesday ordered Monsanto to pay more than $80 million in damages to a California man whose cancer it determined was partly caused by his use of the popular weedkiller Roundup. The six-member jury found that Monsanto should be held liable for the man’s illness because it failed to include a label on its product warning of the weedkiller’s risk of causing cancer. (Jacobs, 3/27)
Reuters: U.S. Jury Says Bayer Must Pay $80 Million To Man In Roundup Cancer Trial
The jury in San Francisco federal court said the company was liable for plaintiff Edwin Hardeman's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages to Hardeman after finding that Roundup was defectively designed, that Monsanto failed to warn of the herbicide's cancer risk and that the company acted negligently. (3/27)
The Associated Press: Man Awarded $80M In Lawsuit Claiming Roundup Causes Cancer
Hardeman said he used Roundup products to treat poison oak, overgrowth and weeds on his San Francisco Bay Area property for years. The same jury previously found that Roundup was a substantial factor in Hardeman's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. "Today, the jury sent a message loud and clear that companies should no longer put products on the market for anyone to buy without being truthful, without testing their product and without warning if it causes cancer," said Jennifer Moore, one of Hardeman's attorneys. (3/27)
The Wall Street Journal: Jury Awards Over $80 Million In Roundup Exposure Case
Jurors heard competing narratives in the second phase on whether Monsanto did enough to test the safety of glyphosate and pass that information to customers. “A responsible company would test its product. A responsible company would tell consumers if they knew that it caused cancer,” Jennifer Moore, an attorney for Mr. Hardeman, said during closing arguments. “And Monsanto didn’t do either of those things.” Ms. Moore said Monsanto was driven by greed and urged the jurors to stop “the lying, the ghostwriting, the manipulation” with its verdict. (Bender and Randazzo, 3/27)
Meanwhile, in other news —
Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson Settles Oklahoma Talc-Cancer Case
Johnson & Johnson took the unusual step of settling three women’s claims that its talc-based products caused their asbestos-linked cancers rather than let juries decide the cases, potentially opening a new front in the growing litigation against the world’s largest maker of health-care products. Jurors in state court in Oklahoma City Wednesday spent about three hours weighing whether J&J’s baby powder was a factor in a 77-year-old woman’s development of peritoneal mesothelioma when a judge announced the two sides had cut a deal. Details of the accord weren’t made public. (Feeley, Fisk and Korosec, 3/27)
