A US jury has found that German chemical giant Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller did not cause defendants’ cancer – the company’s fifth consecutive trial victory over such claims, No-Till Farmer reported several media outlets as saying.
The trial in St Louis was the first involving multiple defendants, according to the 9 September report.
Hundreds of lawsuits involving non-Hodgkins lymphoma - a disease without a defined medical cause - and Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, remained pending in various courts, the report said.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Bayer brands such as Roundup and RangerPro and has been at the centre of mass litigation in the USA brought mostly by residential gardeners claiming the weedkiller caused their cancer.
Bayer inherited the lawsuits following its 2018 purchase of global agrichemical firm Monsanto for US$63bn.
The company has consistently denied claims that Roundup or its active ingredient glyphosate causes cancer, saying decades of independent studies have shown the product is safe for human use.
The St Louis trial involved three plaintiffs older than 60 who claimed the company was responsible for warning them about the cancer as a potential side effect, No-Till Farmer wrote.
The company had announced a five-point plan in May 2021 to deal with the Roundup litigation, the report said.
Bayer will stop selling glyphosate-based herbicides for residential use in the USA starting in 2023, according to a report by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) on 30 July 2021.
Under Bayer’s plan, Roundup sold to commercial users – who account for the bulk of Roundup sales – would still include glyphosate.
Roundup is used by farmers in combination with the company’s genetically modified seeds.
