A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday reduced the US$2.25 billion verdict against Bayer to $400 million in favor of a Pennsylvania man who claimed he developed cancer following exposure to the weedkiller Roundup. the company.
A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury found that John McKivison’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was the result of using Roundup for yard work at his home over several years, and ordered Bayer to pay $250 million dollars in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages.
Judge Susan Schulman granted some of Bayer’s post-trial motions challenging that verdict, reducing compensatory damages to $50 million and punitive damages to $350 million.
Bayer said she will continue to appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, challenging the trial court’s decision to allow the jury to hear what she calls misleading and “inflammatory” testimony.
“Although the Court’s decision reduces the unconstitutionally excessive damages award, we still disagree with the ruling on the liability finding because the trial was marred by significant and reversible errors,” a statement said Tuesday. Bayer spokesperson.
Bayer also called for reform of U.S. law to protect companies whose products comply with federal labeling requirements.
Bayer said decades of studies have shown that Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, are safe for humans.
Roundup is one of the most widely used weedkillers in the United States, although the company gradually stopped selling it for home use last year.
But the company suffered a series of losses during Roundup trials in late 2023 and early 2024, resulting in verdicts of more than $4.25 billion. Some of those verdicts, like McKivison’s, were later reduced, but the cases ended a string of nine winning trials for Bayer and dashed the hopes of investors and the company who thought the worst of the dispute over Roundup was over.
About 165,000 lawsuits have been filed in the United States against the company for personal injuries allegedly caused by Roundup, which Bayer acquired as part of its takeover of the American agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018 for 63 billion of dollars. Most plaintiffs, like McKivison, allege the product caused non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
In 2020, Bayer settled most of the ongoing Roundup cases for up to $9.6 billion, but failed to obtain a settlement covering future cases. More than 50,000 complaints remain outstanding.
