"Bayer Must Pay $78 Million in Latest Roundup Cancer Trial, Jury Finds", 10 October 2024

Bayer must pay $78 million to a Pennsylvania man who said he got cancer from using the company's Roundup weedkiller, a state court jury in Philadelphia found on Thursday...

...Lawyers for [the] plaintiff said in a statement that Bayer had "acted with reckless indifference to people's safety."...

The jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages...

The company said it believed it had a strong argument for reducing the punitive damages on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages.

The Melissens sued Bayer in 2021. They alleged that William, like other Roundup plaintiffs, developed a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma from exposure to glyphosate, which was the active ingredient in Roundup sold for home use until last year.

Melissen said he used the product at home and at work from 1992 until 2020, when he was diagnosed. He alleges that both glyphosate and another chemical in Roundup caused his cancer.

Bayer maintains that glyphosate does not cause cancer and that the lawsuits are meritless. It acquired Roundup as part of its $63 billion purchase of agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018.

The German company settled most of the then-pending Roundup litigation in 2020 for $10.9 billion, but currently faces about 58,000 claims, according to its most recent financial report...