Bayer, the company behind the controversial Roundup weedkiller after its takeover of Monsanto, has recently reached an agreement to put an end to most of the current and possible future lawsuits for more than $10 billion.
The settlement covers around 75 percent of current Roundup litigation, involving approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall. The most interesting part of the announcement is the company’s pledge to finance a scientific panel that is set to take a closer look at the weedkiller and its key ingredient, glyphosate, which is considered to be potentially carcinogenic.
“It they [scientists] find that glyphosate… can cause cancer, then they’re gonna face potentially more lawsuits,” Mollye Barrows of America’s Lawyer told Boom Bust. On the other hand, if the research concludes that there is no cancer risk, then people will not be able to sue the pharmaceutical giant anymore, she added.
The problem with such a study is that it can be biased and can be pushed to bring the results its sponsors need, the contributor noted.
“As we’ve seen in other cases, sometimes that data is manipulated and they put forward what they want. Not to mention that during these four years these products will stay on the shelf, so that’s good news for Bayer,” she said.
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