[mikro2nd]

I'll bet Swiss Money that Bayer knew exactly what they were getting into before buying and (upper management) decided to go ahead anyway. Presumably they've done the math and think it's worth it, having priced the risk in. Scary thought imho.

[linuxhansl]

German speaking here... I suspect they came to this with an understanding of German interpretation and application of law. In Germany a jury cannot just declare a substance as carcinogenic, there are no class action suits, no punitive damages, etc.

That's why the defence has focused so far on facts and studies.

(Note: I'm not saying one is better than the other. Just that the risk was probably assessed with assumptions that turned out to be incorrect.)