Bayer faces billions in Roundup claims as legal strategy falls short

Bayer AG faces mounting pressure to come up with a new plan for handling its Roundup weedkiller litigation after getting hammered by U.S. jury verdicts totaling almost $4 billion over the last three months.

The German conglomerate’s latest courtroom loss was its biggest since Roundup cases started going to trial five and a half years ago, with a Pennsylvania jury awarding $2.25 billion to a former Roundup user who blamed his cancer diagnosis on long-term exposure to the herbicide.

That prompted a fresh slump in Bayer’s shares, as investors worried about the more than 50,000 Roundup claims outstanding in the U.S. that accuse the company’s Monsanto unit of hiding the product’s cancer risks. After last week’s award, they’re beginning to worry about whether the company has the financial resources to keep fighting these cases for years to come.