Bayer has failed to settle many of the lawsuits issued to them in the US as a result of health concerns regarding their infamous weedkiller, Roundup within the court-ordered deadline.
Bayer Monsanto Roundup
As of October, the German pharmaceutical company had faced over 125,000 lawsuits in the US alone after having just lost one to a French farmer late last month who was able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his neurological issues had been caused as an adverse effect of using Roundup.
Roundup is the leading product by Bayer subsidiary Monsanto, which was acquired by the company in 2018 despite the myriad lawsuits against them.
News of the acquisition caused Bayer stocks to plummet.
The judge ordered the settlements to be resolved by Monday - a deadline the company failed to meet.
Of the 3,787 cases that were brought to court, 1,861 of them are not controlled by agreements with plaintiffs' lawyers, leaving them open to negotiations.
The judge in charge of overseeing all the suits, Vince Chhabria, warned Bayer in September he would move at full speed to set trials after putting many of them on hold for months.
They are scheduled to appear before the judge again on November 9.
Last week the company announced its intention to buy US biopharmaceutical company Asklepios for the steep price of $4 billion (€3.38 billion) in order to strengthen its gene therapy unit, likely owing to many of the lawsuits affecting its agricultural sector.
This downturn has caused them to have to take a tougher stance on glyphosate-based pesticides such as Roundup in order to cut their losses and prevent further litigation in the future.
The Monsanto controversy was instrumental in leading the German government to ban all sales of glyphosate weedkillers.
One of the primary claims levied against the German developer is that their infamous pesticide causes cancer.
In reality, the true extent of these claims is still up for debate, but health experts are mixed as to whether or not glyphosate-based pesticides can be linked with cancer.
Bayer lost three previous trials in 2018 and 2019, respectively, which may hint that the company are intentionally missing deadlines in order to contain them and reach settlements which would cost them significantly less.
The total cost of these two trials came to around $50 million per plaintiff.
The vast majority of the cases brought against Bayer and Monsanto are not subject to the Monday deadline.
According to the court briefing, all parties remain committed to seeking settlement agreements.
It adds: “Monsanto is making contact with all of the counsels who represent these 1,861 plaintiffs.”
Bayer previously announced they had finalised settlements for about 44,000 of the cases, equating to roughly 35% of all lawsuits brought against them, both filed and unfiled alleging that Roundup causes cancer.
They told Chhabria at a September hearing they were optimistic about the outcomes of the settlement negotiations. Mediators warned these settlements could make bringing future cases to court difficult.
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