FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) — Bayer shares plunged as much as 14 percent Aug. 13, losing about $14 billion in value, after newly acquired Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages in the first of possibly thousands of U.S. lawsuits over alleged links between a herbicide and cancer.
After the verdict in favour of a California school groundskeeper with terminal cancer, Monsanto faces more than 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States over claims it did not warn of the cancer risks of glyphosate-based herbicides, including its Roundup brand.
Monsanto, bought by Bayer this year for $63 billion, said that it would appeal the jury’s verdict, which is the latest episode in a long-running debate over claims that exposure to Roundup can cause cancer.
“The jury’s verdict is at odds with the weight of scientific evidence, decades of real world experience and the conclusions of regulators around the world that all confirm glyphosate is safe and does not cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Bayer said.
