The second cancer victim in a year to win a surprise victory
against US pesticide maker Monsanto raises the prospect of a flood of similar
lawsuits, potentially leaving the firm's new German owner Bayer with a major
case of buyer's remorse.
From the toxic legacy of Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller to
fears about its use of genetically modified seeds, here's what you need to know
about the $63-billion (55.5-billion-euro) merger between Bayer and Monsanto.
Heroin
Founded in Germany in 1863, Bayer is still best known for
making aspirin. But more infamously, it briefly sold heroin in the early 20th
century, which it marketed as a cough cure and morphine substitute.
During World War II, Bayer was part of a consortium called
IG Farben that made the Zyklon B pesticide used in Adolf Hitler's gas chambers.
Through a series of acquisitions over the years, Bayer has
grown into a drugs and chemicals behemoth and now employs some 100,000 people
worldwide.
Much of its success in recent years was built on blockbuster
drugs like Eylea—used to treat damage to the retina—or prostate cancer
treatment Xofigo.
Agent Orange
Monsanto was established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1901,
setting out to make saccharine.
By the 1940s, it was producing farm-oriented chemicals,
including herbicide 2,4-D which, combined with another chemical was used to
make the notorious Vietnam War-era defoliant Agent Orange.
In 1976, the company launched probably its best-known
product, the weed killer Roundup.
In the 1980s, its scientists were the first to genetically
modify a plant cell. Monsanto then started buying other seed companies and
began field trials of GM seeds.
It eventually developed soybean, corn, cotton and other
crops engineered to be tolerant of Roundup.
Company bosses say that alongside applying big data to
farmer's interventions on their crops, such resistant plant and pesticide combos
will contribute to fatter harvests—needed to feed a world population expected
to hit 10 billion by 2050.
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