Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

September 2, 2022

Roundup litigation at turning point as Bayer rejects “global resolution plan”

By Carey Gillam

Fresh off a fifth-in-a-row trial victory, Monsanto owner Bayer AG is rejecting a proposed “global resolution plan” put forward by plaintiffs’ lawyers as a last chance to try to settle tens of thousands of pending Roundup cancer claims before a wave of new trials get underway, newly filed court documents show.

The company stance comes at a pivotal point in the ongoing nationwide litigation involving plaintiffs who allege they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killers, such as Roundup.

The group of law firms leading the cases in what is called “multidistrict litigation (MDL)” is asking US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria to approve a plan that would set a 60-day window in which both sides would try to forge a final global settlement that would cover the claims of roughly 30,000 plaintiffs.

If no settlement can be reached, the plaintiffs’ firms want the judge to start the process of dissolving the MDL and clearing waves of cases to go to trial in the states where they originated.

The plaintiffs’ law firms say the current court-approved settlement process, which has been ongoing for two years, is too slow and ties plaintiffs into a mediation process that provides only low-ball settlement offers to plaintiffs while delaying trials.

“The offers made within the settlement program appear to be woefully inadequate. Thus, a substantial number of MDL cases remain unresolved by the settlement program, and it is highly unlikely that these cases will be settled absent global resolution or an imminent trial setting,” the plaintiffs’ firms said in a Sept. 1 court filing.

In opposing the proposal, Monsanto lawyers said the current MDL structure should be maintained and the mediation process kept in place. The company lawyers argued that disbanding the MDL and sending “thousands of current and future cases to district courts throughout this country” would “bring chaos to bear.”

September 1, 2022

Jury finds for Monsanto in St. Louis Roundup cancer case

By Carey Gillam

After brief deliberations, a St. Louis jury on Thursday sided with Monsanto in the latest Roundup cancer trial. The win puts Monsanto and its German owner Bayer AG at five trials won versus three won by plaintiffs. The jury took only a few hours to reach the defense verdict.

The decision in favor of the company came after a lawyer for three cancer patients failed to convince jurors that his clients’ exposure to Monsanto herbicides caused their illnesses, as a lawyer for the company insisted that scientific evidence proves the products are safe.

The five-week trial closed as it began – with starkly different presentations about decades of scientific studies about glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer and other herbicides, and with evidence about Monsanto efforts to thwart concerns that its products might cause cancer.

The case is part of the sprawling nationwide litigation that began in 2015 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. More than 100,000 people in the US have brought claims alleging they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after long-term use of Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicides, including Roundup.

Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, has settled the majority of the cases, but this was the eighth to go to trial. Many more are scheduled over the next several months and into next year.

August 26, 2022

For first time, Bayer CEO targeted to give testimony in Roundup litigation

By Carey Gillam

Bayer AG CEO Werner Baumann can be required to provide testimony in ongoing Roundup litigation despite efforts by Bayer to block such action, according to a recent court order.

A judge in Arkansas ruled that lawyers for plaintiffs in the litigation may travel to Germany, where Bayer is based, and take deposition testimony from the executive to be used as evidence. The judge directed Baumann to sit for the questioning within 90 days. The order is a first in the sweeping Roundup litigation, which began in 2015.

Baumann was instrumental in driving Bayer to buy Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, and he has been the public face for the company’s continued insistence that Monsanto’s Roundup, and other glyphosate-based herbicides, are not carcinogenic.

The plaintiffs lawyers say it is these representations by Baumann and others that open up Bayer to allegations of “fraudulent concealment,” and is part of the reason they want to depose him. The evidence and trials held to date have focused on scientific studies that mostly predate the acquisition, as well as internal Monsanto documents and other records, but have not explored corporate actions by Bayer.

Lawyers for Bayer sought a protective order preventing a deposition of Baumann, and on Thursday asked the judge to reconsider his ruling, saying reconsideration is needed to prevent a “miscarriage of justice.” The company said additionally that if the court will not reconsider, it wants the deposition conducted “in accordance with the Hague Convention.”

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August 23, 2022

Bayer facing long line-up of new Roundup trials as cancer takes toll

Cancer has taken an unrelenting toll on 72-year-old Mike Langford. After being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in 2007 he suffered through five recurrences despite multiple rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Now he struggles with chemo-related neuropathy in his arms and legs, and new tests show the cancer is back.

Langford blames his cancer on his longtime use of the popular weed-killing product Roundup, which he applied countless times over decades using a backpack sprayer around his five-acre California property and a vacation lake home. He alleges in a lawsuit that Monsanto, the longtime Roundup maker now owned by the German company Bayer AG, should have warned of a cancer risk.

Last month, a San Francisco judge ruled that Langford’s health is so poor that he is entitled to a speedy hearing of his claims. A trial is set for Nov. 7 in San Francisco County Superior Court.

“I’ve had it so long. I’m very angry,” Langford said in an interview, a day after doctors biopsied an enlarged lymph node. “The future doesn’t look too terribly promising,” he said, trying to hold back tears. He learned last week that the preliminary biopsy results show a return of NHL.

August 19, 2022

New study says glyphosate may be linked to neurodegenerative diseases

Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used weed killer, can reach the brain and cause inflammation associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, according to new research. These findings add to growing concerns and controversies that agricultural chemicals are leaving a damaging impact on human health and the environment.

The researchers conducted their study by dosing mice with glyphosate. After 14 days of exposure, they found the herbicide present in their brain tissue.

These results are the first time scientists have identified glyphosate present in brain tissue, said Ramon Velazquez, an assistant professor studying neurodegenerative diseases at Arizona State University and a senior author of the study

Velazquez and a team of scientists from Arizona State University, the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute published their work last month in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

July 26, 2022

New Roundup trial starts next week in St. Louis

A new Roundup trial is scheduled to get underway next week, as three cancer patients face off against Monsanto in the company’s former hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, alleging exposure to the company’s weedkilling chemical caused their illnesses.

July selection in the case is set to start August 1 in St. Louis County Circuit Court in Clayton, the seat of St. Louis County government. The three plaintiffs were chosen for the trial from the dozens of plaintiffs represented in a case titled Alesi v Monsanto.

Jurors will hear about the health problems of plaintiff Cheryl Davis, 70, who has suffered through two bouts with follicular lymphoma her doctors have told her is considered incurable, as well as the case of 65-year-old Marty Cox, who is in remission from diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Both of their lymphomas are types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cox has a host of other medical issues including diabetes and has been a smoker. The third plaintiff is 75-year-old Gary Gentile who also has suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

All three were longtime users of Monsanto herbicides, such as Roundup, that were made with the active chemical ingredient called glyphosate. The International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015 classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen with a positive association to NHL.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Brian May issued an order July 27 allowing the trial to be livestreamed by Courtroom View Network from Aug. 3 through the completion of the trial, subject to certain conditions. The approval for the broadcast came despite objections from Monsanto.

June 27, 2022

Supreme Court again rejects Bayer bid for review of Roundup loss

The US Supreme Court on Monday dealt another blow to Bayer AG’s effort to defend itself against ongoing litigation over allegations that Roundup herbicide causes cancer, denying the company’s request for a review of a California trial loss.

In declining to take up the case, the court let stand an $87 million award won by Alva and Alberta Pilliod. The jury originally ordered more than $2 billion in damages for the married couple, but the award was later cut by the court. Each of the Pilliods alleged they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after extensive use of Monsanto’s Roundup products.

June 9, 2022

Bayer wins latest Roundup cancer trial; tied 3-to-3 with plaintiffs for court wins

A Kansas City, Mo., jury on Thursday dismissed claims by a man who blamed his cancer on exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, agreeing with the company that the weed killer was not the source of the man’s disease.

The conclusion of the month-long trial gives Monsanto owner Bayer three courtroom wins in a row and brings the nationwide litigation battle to a 3-to-3 tie: the first three trial wins went to the plaintiffs’ side and the last three to the defense.

“The jury’s verdict in favor of the company brings this trial to a successful conclusion and is consistent with the evidence in this case that Roundup does not cause cancer…” Bayer said in a statement.

May 31, 2022

Monsanto’s former CEO testifies in Roundup trial, points to EPA safety findings

Former Monsanto chief Hugh Grant spent several hours on the witness stand on Tuesday – testifying for the first time in front of a jury at a Roundup trial – telling the court repeatedly that global regulators had found no evidence that the company’s herbicides cause cancer.

Under sharp questioning from the plaintiff’s attorney in the case, Grant answered questions about whether or not Monsanto had a duty to warn consumers of a cancer risk by saying there was no such established risk.

“The product had been examined and studied almost continuously for 40 years around the world and had never been deemed to be a carcinogen,” he said. “It’s a circumstance that never occurred. There was never, never a need to communicate such a hypothetical.”

During his 37 years at the company, Grant said: “The reality is that based on regulatory examination almost constantly during that entire period the product was never found to cause cancer.”

April 18, 2022

Former Monsanto CEO could have to testify at upcoming Roundup trial

Former Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant lost his appeal to escape testifying at an upcoming trial over claims that the company’s Roundup herbicide causes cancer.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District on Friday denied Grant’s petition that sought to quash a subpoena compelling Grant to testify in person in the case of Allan Shelton v Monsanto. The trial of the civil suit is set to begin May 2 in Kansas City, Missouri.