Poisoned Profits: Bayer Considers Bankruptcy for Monsanto as Roundup Cancer Lawsuits Mount

In a major escalation of its ongoing legal and financial crisis, Bayer is reportedly preparing to settle thousands of lawsuits involving its controversial Roundup weedkiller – and is even considering bankruptcy for its Monsanto subsidiary if these efforts fail. News of this development, revealed by The Wall Street Journal, preceded a Missouri appellate court delivering a crushing blow to the company: the upholding of a $611 million verdict for three plaintiffs who developed cancer after using the weedkiller.

Bayer, which acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018, has already paid out roughly $10 billion to settle earlier claims linking glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup – to cancer. But the German pharmaceutical and chemical giant still faces around 67,000 unresolved lawsuits across state and federal courts in the United States. The latest ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Western District rejected Monsanto’s attempt to overturn the verdict in a case that had consolidated the claims of three individuals who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after prolonged exposure to Roundup.

The Missouri court dismissed Monsanto’s argument that the jury should not have been allowed to hear about a 2022 ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s positive assessment of glyphosate’s safety lacked scientific backing. Bayer had leaned heavily on the EPA’s controversial stance as a central defense. The Missouri court, however, determined that judicial opinions are not automatically inadmissible at trial and upheld the award of $61.1 million in compensatory damages and $549.9 million in punitive damages.

Bayer has vowed to appeal the Missouri ruling, insisting that the inclusion of the 9th Circuit opinion unfairly prejudiced the jury. But the tide appears to be turning against Bayer. Plaintiffs have won over $4 billion in verdicts thus far, and another Roundup trial is currently underway in St. Louis.

In an attempt to contain the damage, Bayer has hired top-flight lawyers and consultants to assess its options, which include a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for Monsanto. This move, if enacted, would freeze pending lawsuits and could pave the way for a sweeping bankruptcy court resolution of Roundup liabilities. Critics point out that this would allow the company to dodge full accountability while continuing to profit from a product with serious health risks.

A moral reckoning

Adding to this legal onslaught, Bayer is also awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which it has petitioned to restrict the scope of cancer claims tied to Roundup. The company hopes for a favorable ruling as early as next month that could limit the financial exposure from future cases.

But these mounting legal battles are only part of Bayer’s broader unraveling. Since the Monsanto acquisition, the company has seen a crash in its share price and growing pressure from shareholders to break up or restructure its business.

And behind all this lies a grim historical context. Bayer was a core member of IG Farben, the infamous Nazi-era cartel that manufactured the deadly Zyklon B gas for use in extermination camps and conducted criminal medical experiments on camp inmates. At the postwar Nuremberg Trials, several of its executives were convicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Today, with thousands of people saying they’ve been poisoned by the firm’s flagship weedkiller product, it finds itself once again accused of prioritizing profit over human life.

As Bayer scrambles for legal shelter, the larger moral reckoning remains: How many more lives must be compromised, and how many more verdicts sidestepped or buried in bankruptcy court, before a company with a legacy of war crimes and toxic profits is finally held fully accountable?