Glyphosate, historic ruling:Bayer ordered to pay 1.5 billion to three farmers

While the European Commission has just decided to renew the use of glyphosate for another ten years, the sentences that indirectly confirm the dangers of this herbicide are multiplying.Last Friday the synthetic chemical giant Bayer - which acquired the multinational Monsanto - was hit by an important ruling in which three of the thousands of farmers who brought legal action in this sense were in favour.The sentence imposed on the German multinational is exemplary, as it will have to pay compensation for over 1.5 billion dollars growers, who claim to have gotten cancer due to the use of Roundup, a product based on glyphosate.In the United States, the courts are increasingly ordering Bayer to compensate those who have become ill due to exposure to the controversial substance.

The farmers who sued the multinational are called James Draeger, Valorie Gunther and Dan Anderson, who were awarded $61.1 million in actual damage and well 500 million dollars each in punitive damages.Specifically, the three have supported before the judges that, for many years, the use of the Roundup herbicide on their land had led to the emergence of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, tumors that arise from the lymphatic system and develop from lymphocytes.Draeger's wife, Brenda, was also awarded 100 thousand dollars resulting from the damages she would have suffered due to her husband's illness.While the company says it is determined to file an appeal for violation of the American Constitution, the Jefferson City court highlighted how the figure is consistent with the physical and moral damage inflicted by the pathology contracted by the three farmers.

A few hours after the release of the sentence, Bayer also declared that it had concluded with nothing, due to lack of efficacy, an important study now in an advanced stage on its cutting edge experimental medicine, the antithrombotic drug Asundexian.The medicine should have guaranteed over 5 billion euros in sales every year, replacing the revenue of the blood thinner Xarelto, which will lose patent coverage in 2026.After the one-two punch created by the interruption of the test and the judges' final ruling, the company has right away serious economic repercussions:on the morning of November 20th, Bayer lost over 18% in Frankfurt, sinking to a 12-year low.

Despite this split, only five days ago - after the member countries failed to reach an agreement - the European Commission established that glyphosate will be allowed to be used on the continent for another 10 years “based on comprehensive safety assessments conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)” together “with the Member States”.Although glyphosate has been referred to as potentially carcinogenic by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015, several European chemical multinationals with important commercial interests in the herbicide - including, obviously, Bayer itself - had advanced request for extension.And, although the Commission made it clear that the use of glyphosate will be subject to "some new conditions and restrictions", they achieved their objective.

[by Stefano Baudino]