Shares of Bayer (BAYRY) are in focus in pre-market trading after a California jury ordered the company’s subsidiary Monanto to pay $289M in damages last week. LAWSUIT OUTCOME: Last week, a jury found Monsanto, which was recently acquired by Bayer for $63B, liable in a lawsuit alleging that the company’s glyphosate-based weedkillers, including its Roundup brand, caused cancer. The case against Monsanto is the first of more than 5,000 similar lawsuits across the U.S. The jury at San Francisco’s Superior Court of California deliberated for just three days before finding that Monsanto had failed to warn school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson and other consumers of the cancer risks posed by its weed killers, and awarded Johnson $250M in punitive damages and about $39M in compensatory damages. Monsanto, which plans to appeal the verdict, has denied that glyphosate causes cancer and has contended that decades of scientific studies have shown the chemical to be safe for human use. MONSANTO, BAYER RESPOND: The decision “does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews…support the fact that glyphosate does not cause cancer,” it said in a statement. Bayer said in its own statement that “While Bayer and Monsanto continue to operate independently, Bayer believes that the jury’s verdict is at odds with the weight of scientific evidence, decades of real world experience and the conclusions of regulators around the world that all confirm glyphosate is safe and does not cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.” It added that “The jury’s verdict is just the first step in this case, and it remains subject to post-trial motions in the trial court and to an appeal, as announced by Monsanto. As this case proceeds, Bayer believes courts ultimately will find that Monsanto and glyphosate were not responsible for Mr. Johnson’s illness.” WHAT’S NOTABLE: Last December, the EU Commission renewed the license for glyphosate despite debates over its safety, though Germany and France have sought to phase out use of the weedkiller.