The German pharmaceutical company announced on Wednesday that it agreed to delay part of the agreement $ 1.25 billion that would protect her from prosecution of suspected cancer cases related to the use of glyphosate.
Through this out-of-court settlement, Bayer would have ended approximately 75% of the 125,000 claims brought in the United States by Americans suffering from cancer which they attribute to their exposure to the herbicide Roundup.
The agreement is part of a larger settlement of nearly $ 11 billion (nearly $ 15 billion Canadian) for nearly 100,000 Roundup lawsuits in the United States.
But on July 6, northern California district federal judge Vince Chhabria questioned the validity of the deal, specifically Bayer’s plan to rule on future glysophate lawsuits.
Bayer planned to set up an independent scientific committee which, in the event of future lawsuits, would have helped to assess whether or not glysophate is likely to cause cancer.
But Justice Chhabria expressed concern over this scenario whereby Bayer would delegate this decision to a panel of scientists rather than a judge and jurors. The judge also stressed that other potential complainants would not want to be bound by a decision rendered by this panel of scientists, knowing that research on the subject was also continuing.
Announcing that she was pausing this part of the deal on Wednesday, Bayer said it would give the parties more time to consider Justice Chhabria’s remarks.
Bayer remains firmly committed to reaching a resolution that will both resolve this dispute on reasonable terms and provide a workable solution to manage and resolve other potential disputes in the future
, wrote the pharmaceutical.
The German group did not want to comment on the consequences that this withdrawal will have on the calendar governing all the proceedings initiated against him.
Carcinogenic or not?
Various regulatory bodies, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Chemicals Agency, have determined that glysophate is not carcinogenic. Bayer maintains that the active ingredient in Roundup poses no risk to agricultural crops.
However, in 2015, the research department of the World Health Organization said of the herbicide that it was potentially carcinogenic.
In addition, since 2018, three juries in the United States have successively declared that Roundup can cause cancer, after hearing scientific evidence presented by both the defense and the prosecution.
Bayer had acquired Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, for $ 63 billion US, the equivalent of $ 86 billion Canadian. The transaction, announced in september 2016, had been closed in June 2018.
In Canada, at least five class action claims have been filed in connection with Roundup. One of them – launched by lawyers in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta – covers across Canada. Other actions have been undertaken in Quebec, in Saskatchewan, at Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
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