An update this morning from The Economist Espresso daily Email stated that:
“When the German chemicals firm [Bayer] bought Monsanto, an American rival, for $63bn, it thought it had got a good deal. But Monsanto may have left Bayer with billions of dollars in liabilities given claims that Roundup, a weedkiller it makes, causes cancer. In August a California jury ruled in favour of a school groundskeeper who alleged that Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; it ordered the company to pay $289m in damages. Bayer, which denies that the weedkiller causes cancer, said the ruling would be overturned. But in October a judge at a state appeals court upheld the original verdict (while reducing the damages). Today another trial over Roundup, the first to take place in a federal court, begins in San Francisco. Around 8,700 similar cases targeting Monsanto are going through America’s legal system. It may not have been such a good deal after all.”
“Bayer’s remorse: Monsanto and Roundup,” The Economist Espresso Daily Email (February 25, 2019).
Also recall that Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Monsanto also “faces a claim that it deceived home gardeners about Roundup’s impact on their gut bacteria and their health.”
