In the seven-plus years since Bayer closed its mammoth buyout of Monsanto, the combined company has struggled to contain litigation surrounding the crop sciences firm's ubiquitous weedkiller Roundup. But with a multibillion-dollar settlement unveiled Tuesday, Bayer believes it's moving closer to getting a handle on its Roundup legal issues.
As part of the new Roundup settlement deal, Bayer said its Monsanto unit will allocate up to $7.25 billion to make "declining capped annual payments" for up to 21 years in a settlement class fund for plaintiffs who claim Non-Hodgkin lymphoma injuries related to long-term use of the herbicide.
The deal requires court approval, but the company noted that several "leading plaintiff law firms" have requested that the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis approve the arrangement.
Under the deal structure, Bayer hopes to achieve "greater certainty and control regarding its litigation costs" for existing lawsuits and potential future cases, the company said in a Feb. 17 press release.
In addition to the overarching settlement agreement, Bayer said it entered deals to resolve certain separate Roundup cases on confidential terms. These deals were worth "at least $3 billion," Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the settlements.
Bayer stressed that it's making the moves "solely to contain the litigation" and that the deals don't contain any admission of liability or wrongdoing. The United States' Environmental Protection Agency and European Union bodies "continue to conclude based on an extensive body of science, that glyphosate-based herbicides—critical tools that farmers rely on to produce affordable food and feed the world—can be used safely and are not carcinogenic," the company said.
In prepared remarks released alongside the announcement, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson provided three reasons for the large class agreement, the first being a "choice for speed and containment over a protracted legal battle."
Second, Anderson said, the "timing was right" after years of negotiations with plaintiffs' attorneys.
Lastly, the agreement comes as the Supreme Court embarks on a review of a prior $1.25 billion verdict related to Roundup. The high-stakes Supreme Court review was a necessary prerequisite for today's arrangement, Anderson explained.
To help finance the newly revealed moves, Bayer has signed a bank loan of $8 billion, finance chief Wolfgang Nickl said in the prepared remarks.
Alongside the news, Bayer said it's delaying its annual results presentation for 2025 by a week to March 4.
Bayer has been hit with about 197,000 Roundup cases, according to a company-run website. It had already settled many of them before this latest deal announcement, an annual report (PDF) from 2024 shows.
Even before this large settlement, the company has had to pay more than $10 billion in verdicts and settlements related to Roundup and glyphosate, according to Bloomberg.