Bayer’s purchase of Monsanto was originally seen as a smart one for the German company because of their similar business models based on GMO seeds and pesticides.
But now, after the company was just ordered to pay over $2 billion dollars to two cancer victims over the use of Roundup, the controversial Monsanto herbicide, Bayer is reeling, and stockholders are not happy to say the least.
The trial is the third such decision against Bayer and Monsanto since groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson won a similar case in August 2018, and it could open the floodgates for billions of dollars in more judgments against the company, as over 1,000 similar lawsuits are still pending.
Warning sounds abound, including the latest news that has shocked its own investors: the company’s stock has gone into a tailspin, reaching an almost seven-year low on Tuesday.
Bayer Stock Now Worth Almost 50% Less Than Pre-Monsanto Days
As noted in this article from Fortune, the pending Bayer payout to cancer victims Alva and Alberta Pilliod is considered to be the eighth-biggest product-defect jury award in U.S. history.
News of the decision sent Bayer’s stock reeling.
Bayer’s share-price dropped to a low of $60.29 on Tuesday (May 14th), a level that had not been hit since June 2012. That represents a fall of over 45% since the closing of the company’s merger with Monsanto in June of last year.
Because of a recent no-confidence vote, Bayer CEO Werner Baumann’s job is also said to be in jeopardy, the Fortune article said.
Following the Pilliod verdict, Bayer said it had “great sympathy” for the couple, but also denied that Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate are known as “substantial risk factors” for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Both Alva and his wife Alberta have been suffering from the disease.
Roundup was declared a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization’s expert cancer panel in spring 2015.
Bayer, Monsanto’s Future Plans
As the world buzzes over Bayer and Monsanto’s legal troubles and cloudy future, the company continues to double down on its GMOs, toxic chemicals and pesticides-based business model.
Last year, a leaked Bayer investor report revealed a secret five-step plan to douse our food supply with increasingly toxic levels of pesticides.
This stunning revelation has been almost completely ignored by the mainstream media.
Prior to its purchase at the hands of Bayer, Monsanto also signed a $125 million deal with Pairwise Plants, Inc. to create new GMO versions of several favorite food crops using the CRISPR gene editing technique.
These foods are not tested for long-term safety, and could be on the market sometime this year or next.
Among the favorite foods slated to become genetically modified are wheat, strawberries and perhaps other fruits.
Must read: How the Bayer-Monsanto Merger Will Steal the Marijuana Industry
By Nick Meyer, AltHealthWorks.com
