Setting aside $18 billion: As glyphosate cancer litigation persists, Bayer places its survival bet on SCOTUS and federal legal protection

Bayer … notes that regulators in countries from the US to Japan to New Zealand have recently reaffirmed that glyphosate-based products can be safely used as directed. While the European Union reauthorized glyphosate for 10 years in 2023[.]

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As US litigation festers, Bayer has increasingly taken its defense outside of the courtroom, lobbying US politicians at the local, state and federal levels. In Georgia and North Dakota, new legislation shields pesticide manufacturers from some failure-to-warn claims. Yet much of the Roundup litigation is concentrated in states like California, Missouri and Pennsylvania, where such laws will be tougher to enact. The company is pushing for measures at the federal level that could achieve some of that legal protection nationwide.

Amid all the fighting, there’s an uncomfortable reality for all parties — Bayer is far from equipped to fight these legal battles forever.

This summer, [Bayer CEO Bill Andersen] set aside an additional $1.4 billion for the Roundup litigation, raising the company’s total outlay for the suits to nearly $18 billion. If Bayer can’t resolve the litigation by other means, it may be forced to take drastic action. As settlement talks proceed with plaintiff attorneys, representatives for Bayer have threatened in recent months to put the US-based Monsanto division into bankruptcy protection

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