Monsanto, J&J to make heavy payouts to plaintiffs in Roundup, vaginal mesh cases

By PharmaCompass

2019-05-24

Impressions: 116 Article

In the US, a jury in California found that a popular weedkiller — known as Roundup — made by chemical giant Monsanto likely caused cancer in a husband and wife. The jury has ordered Monsanto to pay over US$ 2 billion in damages, which is twice the amount that the attorney of the plaintiff had requested for.

The main ingredient in Roundup — glyphosate — has been in news due to several lawsuits that allege that it causes cancer. There are around 11,000 lawsuits against Roundup pending across the US. Last month, a federal jury had ordered Monsanto to pay US$ 80 million to a 70-year-old man with cancer who had used it for three decades on his farm. In October last year, a California judge had ordered Monsanto to pay US$ 78 million to a groundkeeper, who had also developed cancer after using Roundup.

This US$ 2 billion payout to the couple is the largest payout, and the third such loss to Monsanto due to lawsuits that allege that Roundup had caused cancer. Ironically, the trial’s conclusions came after the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement earlier this month “that glyphosate is not a carcinogen.”

Glyphosate is the most-used herbicide in the United States. Its use in agriculture jumped from 635,000 in 1974 to more than 1.25 million kilograms in 2014, according to a 2016 study published by the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, and accounted for 74 percent of the consumption globally.

J&J to pay US$ 80 million in vaginal mesh case: A Pennsylvania court found that a vaginal mesh implant made by Ethicon, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, was defective and that J&J had failed to adequately describe the device’s risks when treating pelvic organ prolapse.

As a result, Ethicon has been ordered to pay US$ 80 million to a woman whose vaginal mesh implant eroded following a 2008 procedure, and who said it caused pain, inflammation and infections. The court’s verdict includes US$ 50 million in punitive damages.

This is the second such suit against J&J’s Ethicon in less than a month. In April, a jury in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas awarded a record US$ 120 million to an Altoona woman who had mesh implanted to treat incontinence. The company said it would appeal the verdicts.

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