Bayer AG is close to a turning point in its legal battle over the weedkiller Roundup. But it still has work to do to convince investors that buying Monsanto made sense.
The German drug and agriculture giant reached verbal agreements to resolve tens of thousands of U.S. cancer lawsuits over its Roundup weedkiller, Bloomberg News reported [May 25]. While the deals have yet to be signed, they cover an estimated 50,000 to 85,000 cases out of a total of some 125,000 lawsuits ….
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Bayer still has to pay $191 million in the three Roundup trials it lost in the U.S., after judges slashed the initial combined damages of $2.4 billion awarded by juries. The fact that Bayer is trying to appeal those cases may be designed to send a signal on future claims that it won’t just roll over and pay, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond professor who specializes in mass-tort law.