A Philly jury again sides with Monsanto in trial over claims that Roundup caused cancer
In the seventh Roundup trial, a Philadelphia jury decided in favor of the Bayer subsidiary for the third time.
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A Philadelphia jury sided with agricultural giant Monsanto, finding that Roundup weed killer did not cause the cancer of a local woman.
Judith Womack of Philadelphia was diagnosed in 2019 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after having used Roundup multiple times a year since 2015, according to court records. Like thousands of people across the country, Womack sued Monsanto alleging that chemicals in the weed killer caused her blood cancer.
But after a three-week trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common pleas, a jury on Friday found that Monsanto’s flagship product wasn’t the cause of Womack’s disease.
This is the third trial in which a Philadelphia jury sided with the subsidiary of German pharmaceutical company Bayer. Monsanto lost four other trials, most recently last month when a jury returned a $78 million verdict in favor of an Abington man. Dozens of other lawsuits are pending in Philadelphia.
Womack’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comments.
A spokesperson for Monsanto touted in a statement the company’s record of winning trials nationally, saying the latest verdict “validates the Company’s strategy of taking cases to trial.”
Despite the verdict in its favor, Monsanto continues to argue that the recent Roundup trials in Philadelphia shouldn’t have taken place at all. In August, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Pennsylvania state law cannot require a more expansive pesticide warning label than the one approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The company is planning to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the state-based lawsuits, the statement said.
Philadelphia juries previously handed hefty verdicts against Monsanto, including a $2.2 billion award to a Lycoming man in January. (A Philadelphia judge reduced the award to roughly $400 million in June.) Before that, Philadelphia juries awarded $175 million and $3.5 million to plaintiffs who alleged Roundup caused cancer.