Bayer adds $1.9 billion to Roundup litigation reserves, raises 2025 sales forecast

Bayer said on Thursday it had set aside an additional 1.2 billion euros (C$1.9 billion) in provisions to address ongoing litigation in the United States over weed killer Roundup.

The German pharmaceutical and biotechnology group said that, on a currency-adjusted basis, it now anticipates annual sales of 46 billion euros to 48 billion euros (C$73.3 to C$76.5 billion), an increase of 1 billion euros at both ends from its prior forecast.

Why it matters: Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides are key crop protection products for Canadian farmers.

Bayer, which is grappling with costly U.S. product liability litigation, has already paid about US$10 billion to settle disputed claims that Roundup, based on glyphosate, causes cancer.

Plaintiffs have said they developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other forms of cancer due to using Roundup, either at home or on the job. The company has since replaced glyphosate in U.S. consumer products with different weed-killing substances.

U.S. and Canadian health agencies have approved glyphosate for safe use.

On Thursday, Bayer announced a significant settlement with a plaintiffs’ law firm, reducing unresolved glyphosate claims to 61,000. Of the total 192,000 claims, 131,000 have been settled or deemed ineligible, Bayer said.

Bayer forecast 2025 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for one-off items, to range between 9.7 billion euros and 10.2 billion euros.

The group also reported preliminary second-quarter sales of about 10.7 billion euros and group EBITDA before special items of about 2.1 billion euros.

Bayer will report its April-June earnings on August 6.

— Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru