Bayer emerges victorious from the court and soars on the stock market. The German pharmaceutical company has won the lawsuit on the potential carcinogenic risk of its weedkiller Roundup. In the wake of the success, Bayer closed the session in a rally, gaining 1.5% in the last 24 hours. 12.91% at a height 29.30 euros for action.
Bayer wins Roundup weedkiller lawsuit
The lawsuit was filed in 2019 by a Pennsylvania gardener, David Schaffner, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006 (a disease often cited by the company’s plaintiffs), who accused the division Monsanto (acquired by Bayer in 2018 for 63 billion dollars) for failing to include a cancer warning on the product label. Its stock price has since fallen more than 70%.
For its part, the company has consistently defended the safety of its product, one of the most widely used weed killers in the United States, even though it decided to stop selling it at retail last year. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals, citing federal law, dismissed Bayer from the lawsuit. The ruling contrasts sharply with those of other federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Atlanta.
To reduce its liability and consolidate the case, the company has called for intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court. “Bayer is examining the impact of this ruling on other pending cases and intends to submit its arguments, which have been adopted in their entirety by the Third Circuit of Appeals, to the U.S. Supreme Court,” the company said.
But the one with Schaffner is just one of the 58 thousand compensation requests that Bayer has to face (114 thousand have been resolved or deemed inadmissible), which in 2020 it paid out $10.9 billion to settle most of the Roundup-related lawsuits. So far, the German drugmaker has won 14 of 23 cases involving the weedkiller, and only one of those has been overturned on appeal.
Bayer soars on the stock market
The company closed the day with a rally of 12.91%proving to be by far the best stock in the Dax. The stock opened at 26.7 eurosimmediately exceeding the highs of the previous session, and continued to gain ground until reaching 29.3 euros in closing.
Despite this strong rise, the one-week technical analysis shows a slowdown in Bayer’s trend compared to the FTSE MIB, suggesting that the stock could become a selling target for investors. Bayer’s daily volatility has been rather limited, with trading volumes stable and sometimes above the monthly average. This reduced risk profile makes it an interesting option for more cautious investors
