Bayer AG shares yesterday were down 5.9 percent in early trade after a jury awarded more than US$2 billion to a California couple in the largest US jury verdict against the company over allegations its Roundup weed killer causes cancer.
That put the shares at their lowest level in almost seven years, even though the punitive damages award is likely to be reduced due to US Supreme Court rulings that limit the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages to 9:1.
The jury awarded a total of US$2 billion in punitive damages and US$55 million in compensatory damages, concluding that Roundup — based on the herbicide glyphosate — had been defectively designed and that the company failed to warn of the herbicide’s alleged cancer risk.
Bayer on Monday said in a statement that it was disappointed with the verdict and would appeal.
A spokesman called the jury’s decision “excessive and unjustifiable.”
It was the third consecutive US jury verdict against the company in litigation over the chemical, which Bayer acquired as part of its US$63 billion purchase of Monsanto Co last year.
Bayer, inventor of Aspirin and maker of stroke prevention drug Xarelto and Yasmin birth control pills, faces US lawsuits from more than 13,400 plaintiffs over the herbicide’s alleged cancer risk.
The US Environmental Protection Agency this month reaffirmed that glyphosate was safe to use.
The European Chemicals Agency and other regulators around the globe have also found glyphosate not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.
However, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded in 2015 that the chemical probably causes cancer.
Bayer, which was chided by investors for the rout of its shares at its annual general meeting this month, has said that the litigation had had no effect on strong demand from US lawn and garden owners for its glyphosate-based herbicides, adding that demand from US farmers continued to be driven by the weather.
Under a push to divest assets, including its animal health division, Bayer late on Monday said that it had agreed to sell US sun care brand Coppertone to Nivea owner Beiersdorf AG for US$550 million.
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