FILE PHOTO: A bridge is decorated with the logo of a Bayer AG, a German pharmaceutical and chemical maker in Wuppertal, Germany August 9, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
June 23, 2020
BERLIN (Reuters) – Bayer AG is close to agreeing a settlement worth $8-10 billion over claims its glyphosate-based Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday.
The company’s supervisory board was due to discuss and vote on the settlement, which includes a $2 billion buffer for future claims, in the coming days, paper cited company and negotiating partner sources as saying.
A spokesman for Bayer declined to comment on the report. Perry Weitz of Weitz & Luxenberg, one of the leading plaintiffs’ firms involved in the Roundup litigation, also would not comment.
The drugs and pesticides group, which said in May that talks were progressing, is keen to draw a line under the legal dispute, which it inherited via its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto in 2018.
In April, Bayer’s management regained shareholder support for its handling of the litigation process.
Bayer’s shares rose 5.7% to 72.52 euros at 1045 GMT.
Bayer said in April it has been served with cases in court from 52,500 U.S. plaintiffs who blame Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer, up from 48,600 in February.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Madeline Chambers and Patricia Weiss; editing by Thomas Seythal and Louise Heavens)
