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Bloomberg Businessweek September 23, 2019International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a
France-based arm of the World Health Organization, con-
vened 17 experts from 11 countries. They reviewed all publicly
available research on glyphosate—about 1,000 studies—and
concluded that it is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Although IARC has no regulatory power, the findings opened
the door for litigation in the U.S. and globally. IARC also says
that glyphosate-based formulations, including Roundup, are
often more toxic than glyphosate alone.
In 2017, when Baumann surveyed scientists in Bayer’s
pharmaceutical unit in Berlin, several said they believed
Roundup may cause cancer. And by the time the acquisition
was complete, teams of plaintiffs’ lawyers had forced the
release of more than 400 internal Monsanto documents—the
so-called Monsanto Papers—illustrating how the U.S. company
fought off serious concerns dating as far back as 1984. In 2016
the EPA assembled a panel of outside scientists to peer-review
the agency’s long-held view that glyphosate is safe. Eight of
15 panelists raised significant concerns about
the EPA’s stance, and three more questioned
data presented by Monsanto and other pes-
ticide manufacturers. The EPA’s final report,
which largely validated the agency, obfuscated
these apprehensions.
“If the EPA tomorrow were to fund a long-
term rodent study on Roundup, it would regain
so much credibility,” Wisner says. “It would
show that they’re actually willing to consider
that it causes cancer. But they’re not.”
Now 36, Wisner, with a round face, red-
dish hair, and stubble that he shaves for court
appearances, bears a resemblance to the
comedian Zach Galifianakis. He’s quick to joke
about the social benefits of his work. “The first thing I do
when I meet a stranger is, I tell him that I’m a lawyer, that I
sue Monsanto, because people immediately go, ‘Good man,
let me buy you a drink.’” He adds: “Everywhere I go, it’s amaz-
ing, everyone f---ing hates these guys. It’s great.”
Wisner’s own mistrust of Monsanto stretches back to his
childhood in Topanga Canyon, Calif., a bohemian enclave in
western Los Angeles County. His father, an environmental-
ist, screenplay writer, and author of Living Healthy in a Toxic
World, worked with labor organizer Cesar Chavez to get med-
ical help for farmers exposed to DDT, a pesticide manufac-
tured by, among others, Monsanto.
After completing law school at Georgetown University,
where he also got a master’s degree in public policy, Wisner
returned to Los Angeles and landed a job with Baum, Hedlund,
Aristei & Goldman as a plaintiffs’ attorney. In 2015 a woman
in the marketing department sent the firm’s lawyers an emo-
tional email, asking them to consider a case against Monsanto.
Her uncle, an avocado farmer who’d used Roundup for years,
had just died after a short battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Most of the partners dismissed the idea because proving the
cause of cancer is almost impossible. But Wisner spent a fewweeks researching the science and concluded, “Holy shit,
there’s actually a case here.”
He called some other prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys across
the country and found that several were collaborating to file
Roundup suits. One of them, Michael Miller, who runs a law
firm in Orange, Va., welcomed Wisner on board. “He goes,
‘Shit guys, I’m already doing this. I got 10 cases. We’re hav-
ing a meeting in Denver in two weeks. Come on down, let’s
go,’ ” Wisner says.
The attorneys, most of them from five firms, decided to
focus on non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients, because IARC had
found “a statistically significant association” between the dis-
ease and exposure to glyphosate. Wisner began by collect-
ing academic studies and successfully unsealed more than
80 confidential company documents, his own contribution
to the Monsanto Papers.
The group’s first case, representing the former school
groundskeeper, Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, was rushed to trial
because Johnson was close to death. Two weeks
before the trial date, the 67-year-old Miller, a
seasoned trial lawyer who’d been working on
the case for three years and was scheduled
to lead it, suffered a near-fatal kiteboarding
accident. When Miller’s junior associate was
rushed to the hospital a few days later follow-
ing a grand mal seizure, Wisner was called in
to co-lead the case with another young lawyer,
David Dickens, from Miller’s firm.
Wisner had only tried two cases at that
point, but he’d spent years compiling research
on Monsanto. At the trial, his opening remarks
stretched to almost four hours, and during
breaks he apologized to colleagues for tak-
ing so long. “But they told me, ‘The jury loves it. They’re
engaged, they’re taking notes.’ ”
Four weeks later, in a packed courtroom, the jury awarded
Johnson $289 million. “I just started crying,” Wisner recalls.
“And I looked over at the jurors, and three of the jurors were
crying. I’m looking at the court reporter, and she’s starting
to cry as she’s trying to type the transcript. Lee’s crying. ...
It was powerful.”A
t Bayer headquarters, news of the verdict came as a
shock, recalls Liam Condon, president of the crop sci-
ence unit. Just two months earlier, before acquiring
Monsanto, Baumann had planned to overcome the company’s
poor image by immediately retiring the Monsanto name. But
suddenly, Monsanto, and now Bayer, were all over the news.
As Bayer’s stock price began to fall—it tumbled as much as 47%
over the following year—Baumann announced plans to further
hone the company’s focus on crop science and pharmaceu-
ticals by slashing 12,000 jobs around the globe, about 10% of
the workforce, and selling off its animal-health business and
parts of its consumer health franchise, including Dr. Scholl’s
and the Coppertone sunscreen brand. DATA: BLOOMBERG REPORTING9/2016 8/2019Plaintiffs v. Monsanto
Bayer closes deal to
acquire Monsanto120 18.4k