A Missouri appellate court has upheld a $611 million verdict against Bayer’s Monsanto unit, rejecting the company's appeal in a lawsuit involving its Roundup weedkiller. The ruling maintains $61.1 million in compensatory damages and $549.9 million in punitive damages awarded to three plaintiffs who claimed Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The court dismissed Monsanto’s arguments that testimony referencing a prior federal court opinion on glyphosate’s cancer risks was improperly introduced. It also ruled that Monsanto did not demonstrate a conflict between federal regulations and Missouri state law regarding failure to warn claims. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, plans to seek further review of the decision.
Bayer has faced extensive litigation over Roundup, settling a large portion of the cases for $10.9 billion in 2020, though around 67,000 lawsuits remain pending. While the company has prevailed in several trials, plaintiffs have secured verdicts totaling more than $4 billion. One of Bayer’s primary defenses has been the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s stance that glyphosate is not a risk to human health. However, in this case, the plaintiffs referenced a 2022 Ninth Circuit ruling that found the EPA’s conclusion lacked sufficient evidence. A separate Roundup trial is currently ongoing in St. Louis and is expected to continue through mid-June.
