Bayer Must Pay $78 Million In Latest Roundup Cancer Trial

Bayer must pay $78 million to a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer from using the company's Roundup weedkiller, a state court jury in Philadelphia found, Brendan Pierson reported for Reuters.

The jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. I Photo: Mike Mozart Flickr

The verdict follows consecutive victories for Bayer in previous trials in that court.

The company had won 14 of the previous 20 trials over Roundup, though it has been hit with several massive verdicts in the litigation, including one last November for $1.56 billion, later reduced to $611 million, and another in January for $2.25 billion, later reduced to $400 million.

Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, lawyers for plaintiff William Melissen and his wife, Margaret, said in a statement that Bayer had "acted with reckless indifference to people's safety."

The company "still has not gotten the message that it needs to change its ways," they said. The jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages.