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The basics:

• Bayer mulls Chapter 11 filing for Monsanto business amid litigation
• Bankruptcy could pause 67,000 Roundup cancer lawsuits
• Bayer has paid $10B and set aside $5.9B in legal reserves
• Roundup generated $2.8B in 2024; may exit U.S. market

Although Bayer Pharmaceuticals is reportedly making another attempt to resolve lawsuits linking Roundup weedkiller to cancer, the German multinational is also considering a bankruptcy filing for its Monsanto agricultural business in case the settlement plan fails.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Bayer aims to address some of the lawsuits in Missouri state court, where most of the cases are pending.

However, the company is also simultaneously preparing a Chapter 11 filing for the product’s U.S. manufacturer, Monsanto, the newspaper reported.

Doing so would freeze the remaining 67,000 lawsuits that allege a link between herbicide glyphosate, a key ingredient in the product, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Additionally, it would create a court-managed process for addressing those claims.

Bayer acquired the agrochemical company in 2018 for $63 billion, along with years of litigation from cancer patients who said Monsanto failed to adequately warn consumers of the risk.

Of the 181,000 lawsuits regarding Roundup, Bayer said that 114,000 of those have been resolved or deemed ineligible, as of Jan. 31. According to Reuters, Bayer has paid about $10 billion in settlements and allocated $5.9 billion in legal reserves for future litigation.

Bayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has its U.S. headquarters in Whippany.

Alternate approach

The company continues to maintain that Roundup is safe for consumers to use and cites endorsements from regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2024, Roundup generated $2.8 billion in revenue, but Bayer recently said ongoing litigation could force the product to exit the U.S. market.

Bayer believes that EPA approval should shield it from state-level litigation and is lobbying for both state and federal laws that the company said “could largely end the Roundup litigation.”

The Wall Street Journal noted that Bayer is mulling a more traditional bankruptcy approach rather than the controversial “Texas Two-Step” strategy used by companies like New Brunswick-based health conglomerate Johnson & Johnson.

Under the method Bayer is considering, Monsanto’s U.S. operations would directly enter Chapter 11.

By comparison, J&J is trying to resolve thousands of lawsuits claiming its baby powder causes cancer via the bankruptcy of a subsidiary created to absorb mass liabilities. The approach has been rejected three times by federal judges.

Following the latest defeat in April, the company said it will not pursue an appeal and will instead return to the tort system “to litigate and defeat these meritless talc claims.”