Roundup settlement expected before Christmas, Bayer CEO says

Nov 3 (Reuters) - German drugs and agrochemicals group Bayer is expecting a $7.25 billion settlement on its Roundup weedkiller to come before Christmas, CEO Bill Anderson said on Tuesday.

The company is seeking to resolve tens of thousands of Roundup lawsuits through the proposed settlement, which is under review by a Missouri state court judge in St. Louis. 

• "It could be any week now," Anderson said in a press call following the company's results, adding there would be a much smaller number of individual cases after the settlement.

• Bayer is facing approximately 65,000 claims in US state and federal courts from plaintiffs who say they ​developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other forms of cancer after using Roundup ​at home or on the job.

• Following a Supreme Court victory in June, Bayer moved its US Roundup business into a unit dubbed Ruveon and internally separated it from the rest of the organisation.

• Bayer has said that decades of studies have shown glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, is safe and does not cause cancer.

(Reporting by Tristan Veyet in Gdansk, editing by Thomas Seythal)