US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to increase glyphosate production, one day after German chemical giant Bayer proposed a class settlement worth up to US$7.25bn to resolve current and future cancer lawsuits involving its glyphosate-based Roundup weedkiller, The Legal Examiner reported.
President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to boost domestic production of glyphosate – the alleged cancer-causing chemical at the centre of Roundup lawsuits, the 20 February report said.
Trump’s reasoning for the move – which had shocked health and safety and environmental advocates – was tied to claims that elemental phosphorous and glyphosate were essential to the agricultural industry and the military sector, The Legal Examiner wrote.
At the time of the report, Bayer was the only domestic producer of glyphosate and phosphorous.
Bayer has faced years of legal claims linked to its Roundup glyphosate-based weedkiller, which it inherited as part of its US$63bn acquisition of US agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018.
The company has repeatedly said that decades of studies had shown that Roundup and glyphosate were safe for human use.
The proposed class settlement was filed on 17 February and follows
a decision by the US Supreme Court on 16 January to grant a review of the Durnell case, which revolved around the question of whether state claims based on failure-to-warn theories were pre-empted by federal law.
A favourable ruling by the Supreme Court would provide regulatory clarity for companies who sought to bring currently approved and new products to market, Bayer said.
“The proposed class settlement agreement, together with the Supreme Court case, provides an essential path out of the litigation uncertainty,” said Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer.
“This litigation and the resulting cost underscore the need for guidance from the Supreme Court on clear regulation in American agriculture. The class settlement and Supreme Court case are both necessary to help bring the strongest, most certain and most timely containment to this litigation.”
The new proposed settlement would cover plaintiffs who alleged exposure to Roundup prior to 17 February 2026, and:
- had a medical diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), or
- had received a medical diagnosis of NHL before the end of a 16-year period following final approval of the agreement.
If approved, Monsanto would make declining capped annual payments for up to 21 years, totalling up to US$7.25bn to fund the class, Bayer said.
The new settlement differed markedly from the prior class settlement put forward by the company in 2020, Bayer said.
While the prior proposed class settlement was a four-year short-term programme with less funding – with future litigation beyond four years subject to decisions made by an expert science panel – the company said the new proposed settlement was a long-term compensation programme, with funding for up to 21 years, and structured to address the needs of current and future claimants through a common claims programme, managed by a professional claims administrator.
Monsanto had also reached separate agreements to settle other Roundup cases on confidential terms, Bayer said.
Monsanto was taking the Roundup-related actions solely to contain the litigation, and the settlement agreements did not contain any admission of liability or wrongdoing, Bayer said, adding that leading regulators worldwide, including the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and European Union (EU) regulatory bodies, continued to conclude that glyphosate-based herbicides could be used safely and were not carcinogenic.
In addition to the settlements, the company said it would continue to pursue other elements of its multi-pronged strategy, including supporting legislation at the state and federal level, regulatory actions and other measures to help achieve regulatory clarity and contain litigation risk.
