Bayer AG shares leaped higher on Thursday, June 27 after the company released an action plan concerning ongoing gylphosate litigation and mediation.
According to a Reuters article, “shares in the German group, which have lost more than a fifth of their value since March, rose 8.7% to 60.86 euros, for their biggest daily gain in a decade. The company’s market capitalization rose by 4.8 billion euro on the day.”
The Supervisory Board of Bayer AG, which met on June 26, is tasked with making a road map that would help the company take more of an active stance in dealing with the lawsuits involving glyphosate (Roundup), which was included in the Monsanto portfolio of agricultural products purchased by Bayer on June 7, 2018.
More than 13,000 plaintiffs have filed suit against Monsanto (now Bayer AG) in the United States alleging they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma due to exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killers, such as Roundup.
Bayer AG is appealing the recent ruling in the case of plaintiff Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, who claimed his non-Hodgkin lymphoma was caused by exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicides. Johnson was awarded $289 million by a San Francisco jury. The jury ordered $250 million in punitive damages after evidence was presented that Monsanto suppressed the risks of its herbicides. Bayer AG is appealing the verdict.
A Bayer AG Supervisory Board committee plans to closely monitor the glyphosate litigation strategy. According to a Bayer AG press release, the committee will be “equally composed of shareholder and employee representatives and made up of eight Supervisory Board members, several of whom have gathered extensive experience with complex litigations.”
Bayer AG has retained John H. Beisner, a U.S. attorney with expertise in product liability litigation and Ken Feinberg, an attorney specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution.
