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Bayer shares rose more than 9% in Tuesday morning trading in Frankfurt after the U.S. government expressed support.
Amid years of legal battles over the product’s safety, the Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Bayer’s appeal regarding the herbicide Roundup.
The German company is currently trying to quash about 67,000 lawsuits in the United States based on claims that the herbicide causes cancer, a claim Bayer denies. This product contains glyphosate, an ingredient considered “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Government lawyer D. John Sauer, the U.S. attorney general, said in a brief on Monday that the Supreme Court should agree to hear Bayer’s challenge to the $1.25 million (1.09 million euro) jury verdict reached in Missouri.
A Missouri court ruled in late 2023 that Bayer should award damages to plaintiff John Darnell, who claimed his diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was related to Roundup exposure. Mr. Darnell’s lawyers argued that the company failed to warn consumers about the risks of the product.
Bayer’s appeal is based on the argument that federal law should prevail over state law in these cases. Sauer asked the Supreme Court to resolve this ambiguity, adding that upholding the Missouri decision would undermine the authority of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“EPA has repeatedly determined that glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans, and EPA has repeatedly approved Roundup labels that do not contain cancer warnings,” Sauer said in a prepared statement.
The Supreme Court asked Sauer in June for advice on whether federal law should take precedence over state law.
“The U.S. government’s support is an important step and good news for U.S. farmers who need regulatory clarity,” Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said in a separate statement.
He added: “The risks could not be greater as misuse of federal law compromises farmers’ access to innovative tools and investments across the American economy.”
The Supreme Court is expected to make a formal decision on whether to reconsider the case by January.
Bayer acquired Roundup in 2018 when it acquired agrochemical company Monsanto. Although it began replacing home versions of Roundup with glyphosate-free formulations in 2022, the company is still paying more than $10 billion (8.62 billion euros) to cover judgments and settlements related to the product.
Sauer’s brief also comes in the context of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement led by U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This controversial strategy, often done in disregard of scientific advice, is based on the premise that the United States is experiencing a health epidemic, in part due to poor decisions by public health agencies, corruption within the pharmaceutical industry, and over-medicalization.
Although President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed on the campaign trail to reduce the use of dangerous pesticides, the EPA is actually accelerating pesticide approvals, creating tension within the MAHA camp.