By Ahmed Abdelsalam
A St. Louis jury on Thursday cleared Bayer-owned Monsanto of allegations that its Roundup weedkiller caused the cancers of three women, delivering the first verdict since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June limited the legal claims plaintiffs can bring against the company.
Verdict Tests Viability of Roundup Lawsuits
The unanimous decision came as a separate Missouri court weighs Bayer's proposed $7.25 billion settlement to resolve tens of thousands of other Roundup cases. Bayer's general counsel and global head of litigation, Bill Dodero, said the verdict demonstrates the difficulty plaintiffs will face after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Durnell case.
Plaintiffs' Claims and Settlement Context
Theresa Aretino, Cynthia Fernandez and Betty Larkin sued Monsanto in 2020, saying regular use of Roundup led to their non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Fernandez died before the trial began. None of the three women are participating in Bayer's proposed settlement. Around 65,000 claims remain pending in U.S. state and federal courts.
Bayer's Defense and Regulatory Background
Bayer has denied the claims, citing decades of studies showing glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, is safe and does not cause cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that glyphosate is probably not carcinogenic and that Roundup's label does not require a cancer warning, though it is conducting a new safety review. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” to humans, a finding Bayer calls an outlier based on flawed methodology.
