Bayer appeals $25M verdict in Roundup cancer case

Bayer AG is appealing a court decision ordering the drugmaker to pay $25 million to a California man who said the company’s Roundup weed killer gave him cancer, according to Reuters.

In a filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the company called the verdict in Edwin Hardeman’s case contradictory to scientific and regulatory findings. Bayer said the case should never have made it to a jury trial, calling the lawsuit “speculative.” The company added that it maintains Roundup and its active ingredient glysophate are safe for human use.

{mosads}Bayer faces more than 42,700 other lawsuits alleging a Roundup-cancer link in the U.S., but told the court the appeal could affect the handling of future cases, according to Reuters.

In the March verdict, the jury initially ordered Bayer subsidiary Monsanto to pay Hardeman $80 million, which a trial court judge reduced to $25 million in July. Hardeman’s lawyers argued the company hid evidence of the product’s potential to cause cancer from the public and regulators, a claim which Bayer has denied, according to the news service.

Bayer, meanwhile, in its appeal cited findings by the Environmental Protection Agency that glysophate is not a carcinogen or a public health risk when used in compliance with current approved labeling, and that adding a warning label would contradict federal guidance.