German pharmaceutical and life sciences company Bayer AG is reportedly close to reaching an agreement to settle the years-long litigations against its glyphosate-based weed killers. According to sources with knowledge in the matter, the company is set to close the deal within the week.
After more than two years of negotiations, Bayer is reportedly close to agreeing with a settlement amount to put an end to allegations that its glyphosate-based product causes cancer. While the exact amount has yet to be formally decided, reports claim that Bayer could be willing to pay between $8 billion to $10 billion to settle the claims.
A report from German publication Handelsblatt claims that Bayer has also set aside $2 billion as a buffer to settle any future cases. The same report claims that the company's supervisory board has already scheduled a meeting to discuss and vote on the proposed settlement. Since it acquired Monsanto for $63 billion back in 2018, Bayer has been trying to keep lawyers at bay following multiple lawsuits accusing it of selling potentially deadly products without proper warnings.
In August 2018, a US jury ordered the company to pay$289 million to a groundskeeper who allegedly got Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma due to his regular use of Monsanto's Roundup weed killer. Bayer's share prices suffered as a result of the verdict, resulting in a $14 billion loss to its market capitalization.
After the win, Bayer had faced more than 8,700 similar lawsuits with thousands claiming that they got cancer because of the company's products. Regulatory agencies have pointed out that Bayer failed to label its products properly as they did not contain any warnings of carcinogenic or genotoxic risks with prolonged use.
Bayer has so far lost three major court cases, paying tens of millions of dollars to plaintiffs. Throughout the litigation, Bayer has not admitted to any wrongdoing. The company has repeatedly claimed that its products are safe to use and that they had all received regulatory approval before they were made commercially available.
As of April, more than 52,500 US plaintiffs have filed suits against the company. The number of cases had increased significantly when compared to the 48,600 filings as of February. Bayer has already submitted appeals for the three cases that had jury verdicts.
Since its first legal loss, Bayer's stock prices have dropped by more than 26 percent. Shares did recover slightly this week following the reports of it being close to a settlement. Bayer's stock rose by around 6 percent on Tuesday and closed at 72.78 euros per share.
