Bayer’s CEO is warning that the company may have to stop making Roundup, the popular weedkiller that is also the cause of thousands of lawsuits from people claiming that exposure to it caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bill Anderson reiterated concern about manufacturing the herbicide. “We’re pretty much reaching the end of the road,” he said. “We’re talking months, not years.”
“We barely break even on glyphosate production and distribution, and if you then factor in litigation, you’re talking $2 billion to $3 billion in losses a year,” Anderson said. Bayer said it brought in $2.8 billion from glyphosate sales last year.
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In some years, the cost of litigation has surpassed the company’s research and development budget, he said.
Bayer recently filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of a state court decision in Missouri awarding $1.25 billion to a man who used the product. Bayer argues that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act pre-empts state failure-to-warn claims.
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