Weedkiller

Bayer announces alternative to glyphosate

Roundup is a popular weedkiller in the USA.

(Bild: APA/AFP/JOSH EDELSON)

While the German agricultural and pharmaceutical company Bayer is facing more and more charges in the USA over its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, the company's development department is already working on an alternative. "We are already testing this new substance on real plants," said CEO Bill Anderson in a newspaper interview.

The aim is to launch the new product on the market in 2028. According to Anderson in the online edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, this is the first ground-breaking innovation in this field in 30 years.

"New approaches" to legal disputes announced
Glyphosate was developed by the American agrochemical company Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018 for more than 60 billion dollars (around 55 billion euros). Since then, expensive legal disputes have burdened the Leverkusen-based company. In the USA, Bayer is facing tens of thousands of lawsuits for damages due to alleged damage to health following the use of glyphosate. Investors have long criticized the fact that the company has so far failed to draw a line under the glyphosate issue.

In the interview, Anderson also announces "new approaches" to settle the approximately 54,000 outstanding legal disputes that are currently underway "inside and outside the courts". Authorities worldwide have classified the product as non-carcinogenic. The World Health Organization's cancer research agency IARC, on the other hand, classified the active ingredient as "probably carcinogenic" in 2015. The courts have also ruled differently so far. In addition to several acquittals, the company has also been ordered to pay billions in damages.

The packaging of a weedkiller containing the active ingredient glyphosate

(Bild: APA/ZB/Patrick Pleul)

EU Commission renews glyphosate approval
In November, the EU Commission renewed the approval of glyphosate. The Brussels authority emphasized that this was based on scientific analyses, among other things, and that there would be new requirements and restrictions for the use of the pesticide. Several European NGOs are contesting the re-approval of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate. The pesticide action network PAN Europe and partner organizations have submitted an application to the EU Commission for an internal review of the re-approval.