Prognosis
Bayer Slumps Most Ever After Roundup Verdict, Drug Setback
- Stock plummets to the lowest level in more than a decade
- Company stops study for most important drug in development
The Bayer pharmaceutical campus in Berlin.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Bayer AG dropped the most in its history, losing about €7.6 billion ($8.3 billion) in market value, after suffering major courtroom and drug-development setbacks that raise pressure on its new leader to outline a turnaround plan.
Five years after the German conglomerate’s $63 billion takeover of Monsanto Co., the historic value destruction from that deal continues. There’s no end in sight to the litigation over Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup after a shock jury verdict on Friday raised the risk that Bayer will have to tap all of, or perhaps even more than, the $16 billion set aside for related lawsuits.