Bayer's Blind Spot on Monsanto's Roundup May Cost Billions
- Second jury finds weedkiller may be responsible for cancer
- Cost of a settlement estimated at just over $6 billion
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg
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There’s one more tribunal in which Bayer AG’s efforts to defend its Roundup weedkiller are floundering: the court of public opinion.
Bayer says science shows that the herbicide, which the German company gained in its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto Co., is safe. Now that a second U.S. jury has linked the product to cancer, the uphill battle Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann is fighting just got steeper. The company has lost more than $30 billion in market value since the first defeat last August, raising fresh questions about a deal he spearheaded.