Bayer develops alternative to glyphosate herbicide

Bayer has plans to introduce a substitute for glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller – within four years, The Peninsular quoted the company’s chief executive as telling local media.

″We are testing this new substance on real plants. It’s the first … innovation in this area in 30 years. Our objective is to have it on the market in 2028,″ Bill Anderson told German Sunday newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Since buying US agrochemicals company Monsanto – which owned Roundup – for US$63bn in 2018, Bayer has faced a series of court cases in the USA, with plaintiffs alleging that Roundup had caused their cancers.

Bayer has repeatedly said that decades of studies had shown that Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, were safe for human use.

At the end of January, 54,000 claims were still outstanding in the USA out of 167,000 initially registered, the report said.

Bayer has been ordered to pay billions of dollars by US courts, with most cases still under appeal. Anderson told the newspaper his group wanted to speed up the settlements.

″We will improve our defence strategy and see what can be done outside the courts to limit our legal risks,″ he was quoted as saying, without giving further details.