#Bayer says to pay $10 bn to settle Roundup cancer claims

“The main feature is the US Roundup resolution that will bring closure to approximately 75 percent of the current Roundup litigation involving approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall,” Bayer said in a statement.

The deal, which still needs to be approved by a Californian court, would draw a line under a major headache for Bayer ever since it bought US firm Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.
“The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end,” said CEO Werner Baumann in a statement.
Roundup is a flagship Monsanto product containing glyphosate, a weedkiller tens of thousands of plaintiffs say caused their illnesses—with many suffering from the blood cancer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Bayer suffered a clutch of financially painful setbacks in first-instance US court rulings last year over the issue.
The German giant has held fast to reams of scientific studies and regulatory approvals it says prove Roundup’s main ingredient glyphosate is safe, but said when it released first-quarter earnings data in April that it “continues to engage constructively in the mediation process”.
The proposed settlement consists of a payment of $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve the current Roundup litigation, Bayer said, and $1.25 billion to address potential future litigation.

© 2020 AFP