Bayer AG agreed to pay as much as $10.9bn to settle thousands of United States lawsuits claiming that its widely-used weedkiller Roundup caused cancer. The agreements come after a year of talks aimed at resolving legal disputes it inherited with its $63bn takeover of Monsanto in 2018.  

The German drugs and pesticides maker has come to terms with about 75 percent of the 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall, it said in a statement on Wednesday.  

The settled cases over Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers account for about 95 percent of those currently set for trial, it added.

"The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann said.

The company said it will make a payment of $8.8bn to $9.6bn to resolve the current Roundup litigation - including an allowance expected to cover unresolved claims - and $1.25bn to support a separate class agreement to address potential future litigation.

Roundup litigation has pummeled Bayer shares, wiping billions of dollars off of Bayer's market value.

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA