CANBERRA, July 25 (Reuters) - An Australian judge will

rule on Thursday on whether Bayer's Roundup

weedkiller can cause a type of blood cancer, a closely watched

decision that follows some jury verdicts in similar U.S. cases

that have found for the plaintiffs.

On Thursday, Justice Michael Lee of Australia's Federal

Court will only rule on whether Roundup can cause non-Hodgkins

lymphoma and not on whether subsidiaries of Bayer were negligent

regarding the risks its products posed and should pay damages.

The hearing, which will take place in Sydney, is due to

start at 3:15 p.m. (0515 GMT).

The German pharmaceutical and chemicals company has

maintained that Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, is safe.

It says it "fully stands behind its glyphosate-based products,

which have been used around the world for almost 50 years."

The Australian class action against Bayer subsidiaries

unites more than 1,000 claimants and is one of some 40 cases

filed outside the United States, all in either Canada or

Australia.

The lead claimant is 41-year-old Kelvin McNickle, who says

he used Roundup to spray weeds for over two decades on his

family's property and while working for a vegetation management

company. He developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma aged 35.

In the United States, Bayer has prevailed in 14 of the last

20 Roundup trials, but it also racked up a string of losses in

late 2023 and early 2024, resulting in more than $4 billion

damages awarded in verdicts.

Some of those verdicts have seen the amounts awarded reduced

but the cases shattered investor and company hopes that the

worst of the Roundup litigation was over.

The company faces more than 50,000 outstanding claims in the

United States. A request for an agreement to prevent future

cases was denied by a U.S. court.

Roundup was originally produced by U.S. agrochemical company

Monsanto, which Bayer acquired for $63 billion in 2018.

The company has replaced glyphosate with new active

ingredients in its products for household use in the United

States to reduce the risk of litigation as most claims have come

from home users.

It continues to sell glyphosate-based weedkillers to

farmers, who rely on it heavily.