US Supreme Court again denies Bayer’s claim in herbicide case

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected another offer by Bayer AG to settle a lawsuit alleging that its Roundup herbicide causes cancer, as the German pharmaceutical and chemical giant tries to avoid potentially billions of dollars in damages.

Judges rejected an appeal by Bayer and left in effect a lower court decision upholding an $87 million sentence awarded in a California lawsuit to Alberta and Alva Pilliod, who were diagnosed with cancer after spraying Roundup for more than three decades.

The Supreme Court on June 21 rejected an appeal by Bayer in a case other than Roundup.

Bayer has argued that the cancer claims about Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate go against solid science and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s clearance of the product.

Bayer’s appeal in the Pilliod case raised an additional challenge, arguing that it would violate due process protections in the US Constitution to award punitive damages that far outweighed compensatory damages.

Alva and Alberta Pilliod were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of lymphatic cancer, after decades of using Roundup.

Bayer, which also makes aspirin, Yasmin birth control pills and other products, lost three lawsuits in which Roundup users received tens of millions of dollars in each, while it won four. Bayer has pinned hopes for some relief on the conservative-majority Supreme Court, which has a reputation for being pro-business.

Bayer said in its March annual report that it had reached settlements in about 107,000 cases, out of about 138,000 in total.

One of Bayer’s main defenses in the litigation is that the agency ruled that glyphosate is not carcinogenic and does not pose a risk to public health.

Bayer said it should not be penalized for marketing a product deemed safe by the agency and on which the agency would not allow a cancer warning to be printed.

The lawsuits against Bayer said the company should have warned customers about the alleged cancer risk.