Monsanto Says 7 Billion Dollar Roundup Deal is Its Only Settlement as 65000 Cancer Claims Remain

The extraordinary scale of the litigation surrounding Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller continues to grow. The company is now asking a Missouri judge to approve a proposed $7.25 billion settlement intended to resolve most current and future U.S. claims alleging that exposure to Roundup caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Around 65,000 claims reportedly remain pending. Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018, continues to insist that glyphosate-based Roundup does not cause cancer.

The proposed agreement follows years of courtroom battles in which juries have awarded some plaintiffs substantial damages, although Bayer has also successfully defended or overturned other cases. In 2020, the company announced agreements worth around $10 billion to resolve much of the existing litigation, but thousands of further claims have continued to emerge. Critics of the latest proposal argue that its terms could disadvantage some people who develop cancer in the future.

Whatever the eventual outcome of these legal proceedings, the sheer scale of the Roundup litigation demonstrates the enormous financial and human consequences that can follow when questions concerning chemical safety remain unresolved for decades. Monsanto’s continuing insistence that its product does not cause cancer stands in sharp contrast to the allegations being pursued by tens of thousands of claimants. The controversy reinforces the need for genuinely independent safety testing and a precautionary approach to chemicals to which millions of people may be exposed.

To read how, to hide the serious public health consequences of Roundup, Monsanto is alleged to have engaged in ghostwriting, the hiding of scientific data, collusion with government regulators, and other corporate misconduct, see this article on our website.