In Wake of Lawsuits, Bayer Chairman Retires
The chairman of Bayer, Werner Wenning, who supported the takeover of Monsanto, the producer of Roundup®, has announced he is stepping down. Bayer, which produces pesticides and pharmaceutical products, purchased Monsanto back in 2016, paying over $60 billion for the company. With continued lawsuits against the company because of the weedkiller Roundup® and its link to cancer, company shares went into a steep dive since August 2018. This was when Bayer lost its first Roundup® cancer lawsuit in the United States.
Lawsuits Continue to Be Filed
In October 2019, Bayer announced that there was double the number of plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against them. Analysts say the company may have to pay out as much as $12 billion to settle the cases. One case was argued in a state court in California in 2018, and a groundskeeper who developed cancer from using the pesticide was awarded nearly $300 million, which was reduced later to $78 million. Bayer also lost two other cases when juries decided the evidence was strong enough to find that exposure to glyphosate in Roundup® weedkiller was responsible. The verdicts in all of the cases are being appealed by the company. One of the trials was federal, while the other two were held in state courts.
Roundup® Cancer Cases Scheduled in 2020
Federal Judge Vince Chhabria has postponed some trials that were scheduled for January and February. However, many others are scheduled in state courts, including in California, Kansas, and Missouri. Unable to reach a settlement, a case for one of the plaintiffs, Victor Berliant, who suffers from stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is critically ill, is scheduled to begin on May 5, 2020, in Marin County Superior Court. The trial is being given preference because Berliant is so ill and is to undergo a bone marrow transplant after past chemotherapy treatments failed. According to Berliant, he used Monsanto’s Roundup® between 1989 and 2017. Linda Berliant, the man’s wife, is a plaintiff in the suit as well.
Cancers Believed to Be Caused by Roundup®
Many of the cases caused by Monsanto’s popular pesticide have concerned non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which causes an overproduction of the body’s white blood cells. However, there are other types of cancer that have been associated with the use of this pesticide product, including:
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A slowly progressing disease of the white blood cells.
- Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia: Abnormal white blood cells form that crowd normal cells.
- T-cell lymphoma: Cancer that appears in lymph nodes and the spleen.
- Diffuse large B cell lymphoma: Most common Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
- MALT Lymphoma: Commonly occurs in the stomach but can affect any mucosal site.
- Lymphoblastic lymphoma: Type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, along with mantle cell lymphoma and others.
- Burkitt lymphoma: A quick growing tumor that starts in the B-cells.
- Anaplastic large cell lymphoma: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma that begins in the T-cells.
- Follicular lymphoma: This cancer risk can appear as Hodgkin’s or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Monsanto Roundup® Cancer Attorney
I’m Ed Smith, a Monsanto Roundup® cancer attorney. If you or your dear one suffers from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma you believe was caused by Roundup®, I have free and friendly advice to offer and the resources and experience to handle your case. Call me at (916) 921-6400 or (800) 404-5400. If you prefer, you can send me a message using our online form, and I will get in touch with you as soon as I can.
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Photo Attribution: https://pixabay.com/photos/agriculture-plant-protection-1359862/
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