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ayer’s proposed $7.25 billion class action settlement of Roundup litigation received preliminary approval from a Missouri court on Wednesday, rejecting opposition from a group of lawyers representing roughly 20,000 plaintiffs who claim they developed cancer from using the company’s herbicide products.

The decision from Missouri Circuit Court Judge Timothy Boyer allows for the start of a nationwide program to notify people about the class action settlement plan. Bayer, which bought Roundup maker in 2018, must deposit $500 million into a settlement fund within 10 days as part of the plan.

Syngenta, maker of a controversial pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, said on Tuesday that it would stop making its paraquat weed killer by the end of June.

The announcement comes as the company is facing several thousand lawsuits brought by people in the US who allege they developed Parkinson’s disease due to their exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products.

A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer’s proposed class-action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the deal will not be fair to cancer sufferers.

The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal in St Louis city circuit court in Missouri late on 24 February.

The law firms say the deal appears “unprecedented” and raises multiple “red flags”.

In an opening salvo aimed at convincing the US Supreme Court to curtail costly Roundup litigation, Bayer is citing support from President Donald Trump and US regulators while renewing a threat to stop sales of glyphosate-based herbicides to farmers if it does not prevail with the justices.

The Supreme Court agreed in January to hear Bayer’s arguments that federal law preempts lawsuits claiming that the company failed to warn users of a cancer risk associated with its weed killers because the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not required such cancer warnings. The court said at the time it would limit its review to only that question.

In a move enraging health and environmental advocates, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of and providing “immunity” for glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which have been linked to cancer and are the subject of widespread US litigation.

The order also protects domestic production of phosphorus, which is used in making glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals, as well as a range of other products, including some in military defense. Ensuring “robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security,” the order states.

The Feb. 18 order cites authority under the Defense Production Act and instructs US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to issue orders and regulations as “may be necessary to implement this order.”

The White House said “the threat of reduced or ceased production” of phosphorous and glyphosate herbicides “gravely endangers national security and defense, which includes food-supply security,” and the executive order cites glyphosate as a “cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy.”

In a bold bid to put costly US Roundup litigation behind it, Bayer on Tuesday announced a $7.25 billion proposed class action settlement for users of its glyphosate-based weed killing products who have cancer now or develop cancer in the next several years, with average awards ranging from $10,000 to $165,000.

Such a settlement would include people currently suing the company and Roundup users who have not yet sued the company but may want to do so in the future. Tens of thousands of people have sued the company alleging exposure to the weed killers caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Bayer said the potential to get agreement on a class action settlement plan now was boosted by the decision by the US Supreme Court to agree to hear Bayer’s arguments that it should not be subject to lawsuits by people claiming the company failed to warn them of cancer risks associated with glyphosate herbicides if federal regulators didn’t require such a warning.

The US Supreme Court has set an April hearing in a closely watched case brought by Bayer that seeks to make the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the ultimate arbiter of warning labels on pesticides such as the company’s popular Roundup weed killer.

Bayer has said that getting a favorable ruling from the high court is key to quashing costly nationwide litigation brought by people claiming Roundup and other Bayer herbicides caused them to develop cancer.

The Supreme Court noted in a docket entry that a hearing on the case is scheduled for April 27.

Florida officials this week unveiled test results showing multiple breads commonly sold in grocery stores contained residues of glyphosate weed killer, a chemical scientists have linked to cancer.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press release that the bread product testing is part of a broader testing program designed to “arm Floridians with the information they need to make the best choices for their families’ well-being.”

On the eve of the opening of what would have been a bellwether US trial over allegations that a widely used weed killer causes Parkinson’s disease, paraquat-maker Syngenta reached a settlement with the retired landscaper who blamed the company for his diagnosis with the incurable brain disease.

The trial, which was set to open Wednesday in Philadelphia, was to be the first public examination of evidence that Syngenta’s paraquat weed killing products can cause Parkinson’s. Syngenta’s paraquat-based Gramoxone herbicide brand is popular with US farmers.

A trial with nationwide implications is set to open Wednesday in Philadelphia pitting a retired landscaper suffering from Parkinson’s disease against the multinational agrochemical company Syngenta over accusations that the company’s paraquat weed killing products cause the incurable brain disease.

The trial was scheduled to start Monday after jurors were selected late last week, but opening statements were delayed by severe winter storm conditions. It comes as US regulators are in the middle of a years-long review of paraquat after maintaining in prior reviews that the evidence linking paraquat to Parkinson’s is insufficient. And it comes amid calls for a US ban on paraquat as well as actions in various states to block use of the pesticide. New bills seeking bans were introduced this month in Pennsylvania, Missouri and Vermont.