A California jury on Monday awarded more than $2 billion to a couple who claimed Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused their cancer, in the largest U.S. jury verdict to date against the company in litigation over the chemical, Report informs citing the Interfax.
Thousands of additional lawsuits against Monsanto, which Bayer acquired last year, are queued up in state and federal courts.
The couple, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, used Roundup on their Northern California property for decades. In 2011, Mr. Pilliod, now 76, was given a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2015, his wife, who is 74, learned she had the same disease.
The prosecution also tried to convince the jury that Monsanto had manipulated the research data, wanting to hide the potential danger. This is the third process because of glyphosate, which Bayer loses.