Monsanto says it conducted every required test

SAN FRANCISCO — Key Monsanto executives said Monday the company conducted every test demanded by regulatory agencies as the second stage of the trial over allegations of misconduct draws to a close.

High level employees of the Bayer-AG owned company denied any attempts to influence the state of the science over the weedkiller Roundup, because the evidence consistently showed it does not cause cancer.

Monsanto is a “science-based company” with an “increasing responsibility to communicate the science and what the products do,” said former chief executive officer Hugh Grant.

But asked why the largest manufacturer of weedkillers globally did not conduct studies that would have provided further assurance that glyphosate, contained in Roundup, does not cause cancer, Grant said that it is “much more a question of what was required by regulatory authorities around the world.”

Monsanto spokesperson Sam Murphy and global Roundup marketing lead Jim Guard echoed the former company head’s statements that it was not obligated to conduct further testing because there was no evidence Roundup causes cancer at real world exposure levels.

“You’d agree that even though not required by law ... it would be prudent to conduct [those tests]?” asked plaintiff’s attorney Brent Wisner of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman PC.

“My understanding is that appropriate testing was done of the formulated product and the active ingredient,” Murphy responded.

Plaintiff’s attorneys have argued Monsanto is a multibillion dollar monopoly that “puts profits over safety,” while the defense has portrayed the other side as working in bad faith to prove suspect allegations of misconduct.

A six-person jury last Tuesday found Monsanto liable for causing plaintiff Edwin Hardeman’s cancer in the initial phase of whether Roundup causes Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and if it specifically caused the 70-year-old man’s condition.

Hardeman is seeking $200,000 in economic damages. The jurors are now considering allegations of misconduct and whether additional damages are warranted.

Bayer is facing roughly 11,200 lawsuits, up from 9,300 at the end of October, alleging glyphosate-based weedkillers cause cancer. In re: Roundup Liability Litigation, 16-MD02741 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 4, 2016).

Plaintiff’s attorneys have maintained Monsanto strategically chose not to fund studies that could potentially lead to unfavorable findings, while tampering in other analyses looking at the association between exposure to the weedkiller’s active ingredient, glyphosate, and Non-Hokdgin lymphoma.

Defense attorney Brian Stekloff of Wilkinson, Walsh & Eskovitz has pointed to the Environmental Protection Agency repeatedly finding glyphosate to be a noncancer causing agent as confirmation of the company’s position.

Monday was Monsanto’s last opportunity to clear the air on allegations of misconduct after company toxicologist Donna Farmer testified last Friday on internal communications between high level employees in a deposition.

Wisner pressed Farmer on an email from the company’s chief of regulatory science, William Heydens, in which the two allegedly discussed attempts at “ghostwriting” studies looking at any association between glyphosate and cancer.

In one of the emails, Heydens said he will have final say on a 2000 study, which favored Monsanto’s position and influenced later papers according to Wisner, authored by Gary Williams before sending it to the publisher. In a later email, he suggested ghostwriting parts of another study and wrote “recall this is how we handled” the Williams paper.

Farmer repeatedly denied any attempts to influence the state of the science over glyphosate and said the emails appeared suspicious because of missing context.

Wisner then asked about another email in which Farmer said to insert a sentence into a later study stating “scientific bodies have found no strong evidence of the carcinogenic potential” of glyphosate. The toxicologist is not listed as an author on the paper.

“You wrote material, factual statements in this journal article,” Wisner said. “Your name should be attached to the journal article, right?”

Farmer responded that her statements were “suggested edits.”

The trial wraps up Tuesday.