On Tuesday, a San Diego Superior Court jury ruled in favor of Mike Dennis, a 57-year-old resident of Carlsbad, California, who filed a lawsuit against the chemical giant Monsanto Co., now a division of Bayer, alleging that his use of the company’s Roundup weedkiller was linked to his diagnosis of a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020. The jury awarded Dennis $332 million in damages after finding that Monsanto failed to provide sufficient warnings about the risks associated with Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate.
While the jury partially sided with Bayer, ruling that the product design wasn’t defective and that the company wasn’t negligent, the substantial damages were primarily awarded to compensate for the severity of Dennis’s condition. Despite undergoing treatment and achieving remission for nearly three years, Dennis’s attorneys, including Adam Peavy, informed KNSD-TV that there is no definitive cure, and they remain vigilant for any potential recurrence.
In response to the verdict, Bayer issued a statement expressing its intention to appeal the decision, citing what it considers significant legal and evidentiary errors during the trial. The pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant further emphasized its confidence in securing a reversal of the verdict and the reduction or elimination of the deemed excessive damage award.
Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion has brought the company into the limelight, as it grapples with an array of lawsuits linked to the Roundup product. As of 2020, Bayer had announced a settlement plan amounting to $10.9 billion to address approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims related to Roundup.