Germany-based global conglomerate Bayer, the owner of Monsanto, will appeal a harsh verdict by a US jury that ordered it to pay more than $1.5 billion to three plaintiffs who allege a link between their cancer and the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup. connection
“We will certainly appeal the verdict, which provides an amount of compensation that violates (in its degree) the US Constitution,” a company representative told AFP on Sunday, according to Agerpres.
A court in Jefferson City, Missouri, on Friday ordered Monsanto to pay a total of more than $1.5 billion to three Americans who accused the herbicide of years of controversial non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a cancer of the lymphatic system), Bloomberg reported earlier.
In the United States, the latest court setback for US-based former global agrochemical corporation Monsanto is the fourth in the past month and appears to have turned the tide after a string of nine rulings in the company’s favor.
“Unlike previous cases, (U.S.) courts have recently improperly allowed plaintiffs to distort regulatory and scientific facts,” Bayer continued in a press release.
These plaintiffs “argued that there were safety concerns” during the review of the expansion of glyphosate use in the European Union and during the assessment by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bayer explains.
However, the European Commission announced on Thursday that it would extend the authorization of glyphosate in the EU for another 10 years, despite seven countries, including France and Germany, abstaining after a vote by member states.
For its part, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to “confirm that glyphosate is not carcinogenic,” according to a (German) Leverkusen-based group that says it has a strong case for ordering a review of the courts’ recent rulings. in the United States.
In 2019, a California appeals court reduced the $2 billion award against Monsanto in a similar lawsuit to €87 million.
Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, has since been embroiled in several U.S. lawsuits over the controversial herbicide.
About 113,000 of the 160,000 lawsuits filed by alleged victims have been completed to date. The group has allocated $16 billion to cover legal risks related to Roundup.
Source: Hot News
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