DUBLIN — The bad news keeps piling up for Bayer. A California jury just awarded $2 billion to a couple who blamed Bayer's Roundup for their cancer. This is the third courtroom loss in a row for Roundup. With over 10,000 more cancer claims waiting for their day in court, shareholders are starting to get very worried about the future. Bayer's share price has slumped on the news, adding to losses sustained earlier this year. One big issue for the company is what to do about Roundup, which is still being sold to consumers with no warning label. Bayer plans to fight the Roundup verdicts, but the company is facing some serious PR problems as jury after jury has rejected its claims that Roundup is non-carcinogenic. Bayer is stuck between a rock and a hard place – withdrawing Roundup from the market would be an admission that there's a problem with the product, which Bayer insists isn't the case, but leaving it on the market means that future cancer claims may be growing as we speak. It's a mess. No surprise that shareholders have said that they lack faith in management's ability to run the business. – Felicity Duncan

In latest Roundup herbicide defeat for Bayer, jury awards California couple $2bn

By Sara Randazzo and Ruth Bender

A jury Monday awarded $2.055bn to a California couple who blamed Bayer's Roundup weedkiller for causing their cancer, the largest such verdict to date and one that adds significant pressure to a company struggling to contain the fallout from last year's acquisition of Monsanto Co.

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