By Ruth Bender 

BERLIN -- Bayer AG said the number of plaintiffs claiming its Roundup herbicides caused cancer more than doubled to 42,700 in the past three months, adding pressure on the chemicals-to-pharmaceuticals company to resolve the legal battle that continues to eat into its market value.

The spike in plaintiffs from 18,400 in early July comes as Bayer and plaintiff lawyers discuss a potential settlement.

Bayer, which warned about a surge in plaintiffs earlier in October, blamed the rise on plaintiff lawyers doubling advertising spending over the period to file more cases before any settlement might be reached.

"The number of lawsuits says nothing about their merits," the German company said Wednesday in a statement on its third-quarter results.

Bayer has suffered one of the worst crises in its 156 year-old history since it inherited thousands of lawsuits with its $63 billion acquisition of Roundup inventor Monsanto Co. last year.

Since August 2018, three juries have found Bayer's products were responsible for causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma in people, pummeling its share price. Uncertainty over how much Bayer will end up paying to resolve the lawsuits have axed roughly 30% off the company's market value.

Bayer, which has argued that Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate are safe, said it was "constructively engaging" in the mediation process and intended to defend itself vigorously in the appeals proceedings.

Amid the legal issues, the company said sales in its crop science division recovered from last quarter's weakness, when Bayer was grappling with the effects of a bad planting season.

Sales in its crop science business rose 5.8% to EUR3.95 billion ($4.4 billion) in the third quarter, driven by growth in Latin and North America.

This helped the company post an overall rise in sales to EUR9.83 billion, slightly beating analysts' expectations, according to estimates from FactSet.

Sales in the pharmaceuticals unit, which still counts for a little more than half of group sales, rose 8.2% to EUR4.5 billion, driven mostly by its two blockbuster drugs, blood thinner Xarelto and eye treatment Eylea.

Net income dropped 65% in the quarter to EUR1.04 billion, due mostly to a large divestment gain recorded in the comparable period last year.

Bayer confirmed its full-year outlook of a 4% rise in sales. In July, the company had warned that the severe weather that affected its crop-science division could put its 2019 sales target out of reach.

Write to Ruth Bender at Ruth.Bender@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2019 04:11 ET (08:11 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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