Bayer is setting aside another $4.5 billion to deal with customer claims glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, caused cancer. That’s on top of $9.6 billion it set aside earlier.
But the company intends to continue selling Roundup to farmers and landscape companies because Bayer said it’s safe. On the other hand, it’s no longer going to sell glyphosate to householders for lawn care after 2023 because that’s where almost all of the court cases have arisen.
The company said it will continue to pursue legal appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court and is hopeful of success to over-turn multi-billion-dollar class-action awards, mainly by courts in California.
The courts have been persuaded that glyphosate causes non-Hodgins lymphoma, a type of cancer.
“We want to provide comfort to our investors that the glyphosate litigation exposure should now be reasonably accounted for and leaves significant upside in the event of a favourable Supreme Court decision on the case,” said Bayer’s chief executive officer Werner Baumann.
Bayer inherited the problems after it bought Monsanto in 2018.
