A judge just massively cut a $2 billion jury payout to a couple who claimed Bayer's Roundup weedkiller caused their cancer
- Bayer slashed a $2 billion jury award by more than 95% on Thursday as payouts over its cancer-linked Roundup weedkiller continue to mount.
- The German pharmaceuticals giant has successfully reduced three major trial verdicts within the past year.
- Watch Bayer trade live.
Bayer successfully slashed a jury award of $2 billion by more than 95% to $86.7 million on Thursday as payouts over its cancer-linked Roundup weedkiller continue to mount.
A state-court jury in Oakland, California ordered the German pharmaceuticals giant to pay the sum to Alva and Alberta Pilliod after deciding Roundup was responsible for their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood-cell cancer. Judge Winifred Smith slashed the amount after determining it was unconstitutionally high, according to Reuters.
Bayer has successfully reduced two other jury awards in the past year, both in San Francisco. A superior-court judge cut an award of $289 million for Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, to $78 million in October, according to Reuters. Similarly, a district-court judge trimmed a payout of about $80 million to Edwin Hardeman, who blamed Roundup after he fell ill with the same type of cancer, to about $25 million last week.
Bayer faces lawsuits from more than 13,000 farmers, landscapers and gardeners following its $63 billion takeover of agrichemical titan and Roundup-owner Monsanto last summer. The company described the latest payout reduction as "a step in the right direction," Reuters said. It plans to appeal the verdict and continues to deny that the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, causes cancer.
Bayer's shares climbed 1.4% to $59.90 on the news, but are still down by more than a third in the past year.
