(NDAgConnection.com) – Bayer has reached another settlement to resolve a collection of claims that its weedkiller Roundup caused cancer, thus avoiding a trial that was set to start next week in St. Louis.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the agreement nullifies what nearly became the first trial of its kind to reach the corporate hometown of Monsanto, the agricultural and biotech giant headquartered in the St. Louis area until its 2018 acquisition by Bayer, which still maintains a large local presence.

Monsanto developed Roundup in 1970, and kept the patent on the chemical until its expiration in 2000. Legal liabilities tied to the product — and allegations about its cancer risks — have now been assumed by Bayer, and have cost the German company billions in legal payouts and billions more in diminished stock value. In 2020, for instance, the company settled the bulk of the U.S. Roundup lawsuits for nearly $10 billion.

The specific terms of Thursday’s settlement are confidential, Bayer said.

The new agreement addresses a lawsuit first filed in 2017 that featured dozens of plaintiffs from around the U.S. — including St. Louis County resident and lead plaintiff Earl Neal, who said he was exposed to Roundup while working for the St. Louis City Parks Department and St. Louis City Forestry Department in the 1990s.

The new settlement comes practically on the eve of the trial that was slated to begin on Monday. It mirrors the development in other cases that have also dodged trials once they were right on the verge of going before a jury. In January 2020, for example, another case poised to reach a St. Louis courtroom was postponed on the same day that opening statements were supposed to occur, so that settlement talks could continue.