Calgary, AB – Bayer announced today a series of agreements to substantially resolve major outstanding legacy Monsanto litigation. This includes agreements that will bring closure to the vast majority of the current Roundup^® product liability claims, while also establishing a strong framework to resolve the remainder of the litigation. The company also announced separate agreements to resolve the dicamba drift litigation and most of the company’s PCB water litigation; as you may already know, PCBs were legally manufactured by Monsanto until it ceased production in 1977.

Importantly, we want to emphasize our continued commitment to Roundup^® and XtendiMax™ as two essential agricultural tools. We continue to proudly stand behind the safety and utility of these products and our commitment to offer them to you. The decision to resolve these cases creates greater certainty for farmers and the ag marketplace. It also allows us to fully focus on bringing new innovations forward to help address some of the most pressing challenges farmers face to bring crops to market safely, efficiently and sustainably.

While these settlements apply only to U.S. litigation, we understand you may have questions about how they affect Canada. We would like to assure you that these agreements will not impact our ability to serve our Canadian growers and stakeholders, and have no bearing on litigation in Canada. We are not contemplating a settlement of the Canadian cases related to glyphosate. And although there are some similarities between the U.S. and Canadian legal systems, they are in fact quite different, including with respect to damage awards. Very different considerations apply in Canada. 

In addition to this, we believe in the safety of our products. It is worth keeping in mind that in January 2019, Health Canada completed an in-depth regulatory review of glyphosate, for which the agency engaged 20 of its own scientists who were not involved its earlier 2017 re-evaluation decision. The agency “left no stone unturned” in conducting this review. The outcome was a reaffirmation by Health Canada of its conclusion that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a human cancer risk. We believe in the thoroughness and integrity of this process.

We are committed to delivering better solutions for farmers and providing more choice for consumers to help them and our planet thrive. Roundup^® and our other products will continue to play a key role in helping agriculture meet pressing environmental and food security challenges as the global population grows by an expected two billion people through 2050.

The recent pandemic has reminded the world of the critical role agriculture and science play in the health of our daily lives. As we look ahead, our focus at Bayer remains on harnessing science for a brighter future, and using those innovations to better serve you, our customer.