Bayer's Report Indicates Loss & Flags Higher Roundup Deal

Bayer's Report Indicates Loss & Flags Higher Roundup Deal

Introduction

Bayer issued a third-quarter report today, indicating a challenging quarter impacted substantially by the Covid-19 pandemic and the legal action over Roundup, which is in the news for the growing number of lawsuits being pursued by its former users who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The German chemical and drug giant, in its report, indicated that it took impairment charges of 9.25 billion euros ($10.79 billion) and noted that it would need an extra $750 million on top of the settlement deal that was announced in June to resolve a torrent of lawsuits filed by the U.S. plaintiffs.

The additional cost is required to address the class plan, which was the result of concerns raised by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, overseeing the Roundup multidistrict litigation, over arrangement on future cases that are yet to be filed.

As per the report, the company took an additional provision in the third quarter to cover the increased cost of a revised class plan, as the new plan will come in at approximately 2 billion U.S. dollars, an increase over the original cost of 1.25 billion U.S. dollars.

The company also noted the acquisition of Asklepios BioPharmaceuticals, Inc., a U.S.-headquartered biopharmaceutical company specialized in the research, development, and manufacture of gene therapies across different therapeutic areas, and said that the pandemic is placing additional strain on its Crop Science Division.

Currently, Bayer is facing approximately 125,000 filed and unfiled claims, as reported at the end of June. The Roundup litigation is consolidated under MDL No. 2741 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.