(Reuters) – Shares in German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) fell 3% on Friday after it said there were “bumps” in sealing its $ 11 billion settlement of U.S. lawsuits over its Roundup weed killer after a U.S. judge doubted the progress of the agreement.
FILE PHOTO: Bayer AG logo and flags pictured outside a plant in Wuppertal, Germany August 9, 2019. REUTERS / Wolfgang Rattay / File Photo
Bayer struck a deal in June over about 75% of the 125,000 claims that emerged from the $ 63 billion takeover of seed and chemical company Monsanto in 2018.
It has indicated that the settlement of existing cases depends on some form of agreement on future cases, and has proposed a scientific panel to govern all future claimants who agree to submit the proceeding out of court. .
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria threatened to restart the case and move forward after question marks as Bayer returned to the settlement, according to a Bloomberg News report. ([bloom.bg/34EJ9Mj])
“There are often some bumps in the road when implementing a resolution of this magnitude, but we remain confident that a comprehensive settlement will be finalized and implemented,” Bayer said in a statement.
Its shares had dropped to 54.78 euros after 0936 GMT.
One of the leading lawyers involved in the Roundup proceedings said he was ready to bring cases back to court.
‘I agree that these Monsanto shenanigans should stop. “Whether rule or not – at this point the only enemy is indecision,” Brent Wisner told Reuters.
Chhabria told the parties to proceed with the finalization of the settlement and to consider next steps should the trial resume, scheduled for a September 24 hearing to discuss progress, according to a source who oversaw the hearing.
Bayer said he expected litigation to remain pending at least until then.
“While we support the court’s double track approach over the next 30 days, we are optimistic that the finalization of the settlements over this period will not necessitate any further steps on the court track,” it said.
In July, Chhabria raised concerns about the plan to set up an independent panel of scientists to assess whether glyphosate-based weed killers such as Roundup cause cancer, and delayed an important part of the proposed settlement.
Bayer’s proposal to tackle all future cases simultaneously, where it was deployed in July, is unprecedented, as glyphosate remains on the market without a cancer warning.
Chhabria said on Thursday it had tended to make public several confidential letters from consumer advocates complaining that Bayer’s Monsanto unit was refusing the deal, Bloomberg News said.
Reporting By Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Delaware; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta and Tom Brown and Kirsten Donovan
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