Bayer AG’s settlement talks over tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its Roundup herbicide causes cancer are heating up as the company’s lawyers meet with individual attorneys representing consumers across the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. The sessions are focused on resolving separate groups of Roundup claims rather than creating a formal global-resolution program. Washington, D.C.-based attorney Ken Feinberg, appointed by a federal judge to serve as a settlement mediator, confirmed the meetings on Thursday. “There are talks with various lawyers around the nation who have significant inventories of Roundup cases,” Feinberg said. “I’m optimistic we can reach a comprehensive settlement of this litigation.” Several trials in California and Missouri have been postponed, which lawyers said reflects the German drug and chemical giant’s effort to resolve the massive litigation exposure it took on with the purchase of the weedkiller’s maker, Monsanto Co., in 2018. To spur settlements, some of Bayer’s lawyers are warning that Monsanto may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection if favorable deals can’t be reached to wipe out the more than 40,000 cases pending and any future suits. Bayer lost its first three trials to consumers who claimed exposure to the weedkiller caused them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Juries in those cases, all in California, awarded a combined total of more than $2.4 billion in damages. Judges later reduced the damages and Bayer has appealed the verdicts.
