Bayer CEO: targeting US state regulation to stem glyphosate costs

Berlin | Reuters — Bayer is lobbying U.S. states to adjust their regulatory framework in its battle to wind down costly litigation over its weed killer glyphosate, the German chemicals company’s CEO said in a draft speech released on Thursday.

“We are working towards this with lawmakers and gaining support beyond party lines,” Chief Executive Bill Anderson said in a transcript of his speech for the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on April 25.

Why it matters: Glyphosate, a key crop protection product for Canadian farmers, is currently the subject of a class action lawsuit in Canada.

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Multiple law firms across the country – in Saskatchewan, Ontario, British Columbia and elsewhere – are now recruiting Canadians to join a class action lawsuit related to Roundup and cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Georgia and North Dakota have already adjusted their regulations, Anderson said, adding: “We hope that other federal states follow this example.”

Bayer expects its earnings to decline this year as it grapples with U.S. product liability litigation over Roundup, based on the herbicide glyphosate, as well as stifling debt from the 2018 takeover of Monsanto and weak agricultural markets.

Bayer earlier this month again petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to sharply limit legal claims that Roundup causes cancer, seeking to avoid potentially billions of dollars in damages.

Anderson said there was a risk that litigation could force Bayer to stop marketing glyphosate, adding: “We don’t want that, but we have to prepare ourselves for all possible developments.”

— Reporting by Rachel More

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