Bayer AG faces mounting pressure to come up with a new plan for handling its Roundup weedkiller litigation after getting hammered by U.S. jury verdicts totaling almost $4 billion over the last three months.
The German conglomerate¡¯s latest courtroom loss was its biggest since Roundup cases started going to trial five and a half years ago, with a Pennsylvania jury awarding $2.25 billion to a former Roundup user who blamed his cancer diagnosis on long-term exposure to the herbicide.
That prompted a fresh slump in Bayer¡¯s shares, as investors worried about the more than 50,000 Roundup claims outstanding in the U.S. that accuse the company¡¯s Monsanto unit of hiding the product¡¯s cancer risks. After last week¡¯s award, they¡¯re beginning to worry about whether the company has the financial resources to keep fighting these cases for years to come.
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