Trial was only the second of more than 11,200 Roundup lawsuits in the legal pipeline

Shares in Bayer hit an almost 7-year low on Thursday after a US jury awarded $80 million to a man claiming use of the group’s weed killer Roundup caused his cancer, with thousands of similar lawsuits looming, reported Reuters.

The jury in San Francisco federal court on Wednesday found Bayer liable because its Monsanto unit did not warn plaintiff Edwin Hardeman of the herbicide’s cancer risks.

German chemicals giant Bayer, which bought Roundup maker Monsanto last year for $63 billion, said it would appeal the verdict.

Its shares were down 1.3 percent at 55.59 euros at 1023 GMT, valuing the drugs and crop chemicals group at about 52 billion euros ($58 billion), well below the Monsanto price tag.

The stock was, however, spared the type of plunge it suffered last week when it fell 9.6 percent on the jury’s conclusion – part-way into the Hardeman trial – that there was a causal link between the weedkiller and the plaintiff’s disease.

The trial is only the second of more than 11,200 Roundup lawsuits set to go to trial in the United States.