Bayer has agreed to pay just over $10 billion in order to settle roughly 125,000 claims that its Roundup weedkiller cases cancer and resolve potential future litigation, the company announced on Wednesday.
The big picture: The settlement includes a $1.25 billion deal for possible future litigation against the company by people who report being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) after using Roundup.
What they're saying: “First and foremost, the Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end,” Bayer CEO Werner Baumann said in a statement.
- “It resolves most current claims and puts in place a clear mechanism to manage risks of potential future litigation. It is financially reasonable when viewed against the significant financial risks of continued, multi-year litigation and the related impacts to our reputation and to our business," Baumann said.
- “It’s rare that we see a consensual settlement with that many zeros on it,” Stanford University professor Nora Freeman Engstrom told the New York Times.
Details: The $1.25 billion payment for future plaintiffs in a separate class agreement will also be used for research into NHL treatment and diagnostics.
- The company "still faces at least 25,000 claims from plaintiffs who have not agreed to be part of the settlement," the Times reports.
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Editor's note: This story has been corrected to show that the settlement affects roughly 125,000 claims, not 94,000 claims.
