Bayer Chairman Quits as Roundup Settlement Talks Progress

Posted on Feb 26 2020 - 4:24pm by Sustainable Pulse

Chairman Werner Wenning, one of the architects of a $63 billion takeover deal that has left the German crop protection company fighting costly lawsuits, will step down in April, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters

Bayer shares have plunged about a quarter in value since August 2018, when the company lost the first U.S. lawsuit claiming weedkiller Roundup – acquired via the takeover of Monsanto – causes cancer.

“We have made and continue to make progress in handling the legal issues in the U.S. That’s why now is a good time to hand over to my successor,” the 73-year-old Wenning said in a statement.

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Norbert Winkeljohann, who was head of auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Europe SE until June 2018 and has been a member of Bayer’s supervisory board since 2018, will succeed Wenning after the annual shareholders’ meeting on April 28, the company added.

Wenning, whose term as chairman of Bayer’s non-executive supervisory board would have expired in 2022, said he had originally intended to step down last year after reaching the board’s recommended age limit of 72, but was asked to stay on.

Bayer last year started negotiations with plaintiffs’ lawyers to settle more U.S. lawsuits involving Roundup.

In October 2019, the number of plaintiffs more than doubled to 42,700 within just three months, and analysts have predicted it may cost they company up to $12 billion to lay the claims to rest.

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2 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Jack Daniel February 28, 2020 at 20:48 - Reply

    How can they settle this suit as they continue to spray this chemical all over the world. Where I live (Georgia), the people living next to these cotton fields are being poisoned and don’t even know it. They just die early and don’t know why. Nearly 100 years of poison is in these fields and many people get their water from shallow wells which are no deeper than 30 feet. The damage which has been done is still being done. How could they settle anything. Another thing…. most of the glyphosate being sprayed here and in most agriculture; I would assume, is not even being made by Monsanto or Bayer, but generic companies like Honcho and many others. So, how can they settle anything!? My cancer may not arrive for 10 or 20 years if I can survive this barrage of chemicals for that long.
    Just recently it dawned on me how similar this chemical addiction of these wealthy farmers is to slavery in the plantations. It would take a war to pry it from their hands…. Or maybe not…. Perhaps these attorneys will eventually realize that the chemical companies have covered themselves quite well and just like Smith & Wesson….. they’re not pulling the triggers on these sprayers (because the literature on the jugs tells the user not to use them near people, water or let it excape into the air….. drift?). The wealthy farmers are the ones spraying not the manufactures. That’s where all this is just the tip of the iceberg! Focusing the liability in the proper direction is the only hope!

  2. stanley r mcqueen March 16, 2020 at 06:09 - Reply

    One might ask, why are so many people getting cancer,
    agent orange caused cancer , and according to some scientist say round up causes None b large cell lymphoma, ,
    I guess what my father always said was right the big dog in a fight always wins, I sprayed this poison not realizing what I was using that was dangerous . I have none Hoskins B cell lymphoma , don’t use this stuff and have to suffer with cancer.

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