NEW YORK – A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto parent Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company’s Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff.
The verdict marks the latest in aย long-running series of court battlesย Monsanto has faced over its Roundup herbicide. The agrochemical giant says it will appeal the verdict, reached in a Georgia courtroom late Friday, in efforts to overturn the decision.
The penalties awarded include $65 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, law firms Arnold & Itkin LLP and Kline & Specter PC said in a statement. That marksย one of the largestย verdicts in a Roundup-related case to date.
Plaintiff John Barnes filed his lawsuit against Monsanto in 2021, seeking damages related to his non-Hodgkinโs lymphoma. Arnold & Itkin attorney Kyle Findley, the lead trial lawyer on the case, said the verdict will help put his client in a better position to get the treatment he needs going forward.
โItโs been a long road for him … and he was happy that the truth related to the product (has) been exposed,โ Findley told The Associated Press on Sunday. He called the verdict an โimportant milestoneโ after “another example of Monsantoโs refusal to accept responsibility for poisoning people with this toxic product.โ
Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, has continued to dispute claims that Roundup causes cancer. But the company has been hit withย more than 177,000 lawsuitsย involving the weedkiller and set aside $16 billion to settle cases.
In a statement, Monsanto said Friday’s verdict โconflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide.โ The company added that it continues โto stand fully behind the safetyโ of Roundup products.
For a variety of crops โ including corn, soybeans and cotton โ Roundup is designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist the weedkillerโs deadly effect. It allows farmers to produce more while conserving the soil by tilling it less.
Some studies associate Roundupโs key ingredient, glyphosate, with cancer, although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyย has saidย it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed. Still, numerous lawsuits over the weedkiller allege glyphosate does cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma, arguing that Monsanto has failed to warn the public about serious risks for years.
Findley said that evidence relating to Barnes’ case show โmany years of cover-ups” and โbackroom dealings.โ He accused Monsanto of ignoring several scientific studies related to the toxicity of Roundup and said the company โtried to find ways to persuade and distract and deny the connection between this product and non-Hodgkinโs lymphoma.โ
Friday’s decision marks the fourth Roundup-related verdict that Findley’s team has won to date โ the largest of which was awarded in Philadelphia in January 2024, with damages totaling $2.25 billion. And he said his law firm has โmany more clients who are similarly situated as Mr. Barnes.โ
Monsanto, meanwhile, also maintains that it โremains committed to trying casesโ โ and argues its wider record ofย Roundup-related litigationย continues to reinforce the safety of its products. The company said it has prevailed in 17 of the last 25 related trials and โjury verdicts were reduced 90% overallโ in past cases that have been finalized.
Bayer hasย recently renewed and expandedย an effort across aย handful of U.S. statesย to protect pesticide companies from claims they failed to warn that a product causes cancer, if labeling otherwise complies with EPA regulations. The company and other industry supports argue that litigation costs are unstainable and could impact Roundupโs future availability. But opponents stress that such legislation would limit accountability.
