Oct 10 (Reuters) - Bayer must pay $78 million

to a Pennsylvania man who said he got cancer from using the

company's Roundup weedkiller, a state court jury in Philadelphia

found on Thursday.

The verdict in state court in Philadelphia follows previous

consecutive victories for Bayer in that court. The company has

won 14 of the previous 20 trials over Roundup, though it has

been hit with several massive verdicts in the litigation,

including last November for $1.56 billion, later reduced to $611

million, and one in January for $2.25 billion, later reduced to

$400 million.

William Melissen and his wife Margaret Melissen sued Bayer

in 2021. They alleged that William, like other Roundup

plaintiffs, developed a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma from

exposure to glyphosate, which was the active ingredient in

Roundup sold for home use until last year.

Melissen said he used the product at home and at work from

1992 until 2020, when he was diagnosed. He alleges that both

glyphosate and another chemical in Roundup caused his cancer.

Bayer maintains that glyphosate does not cause cancer and

that the lawsuits are meritless. The company settled most of the

then-pending Roundup litigation in 2020 for $10.9 billion, but

currently faces about 58,000 claims, according to its most

recent financial report.

The company won a significant legal victory in August, when

the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that

federal law shields Bayer from state law claims, which conflicts

with previous rulings by other federal appeals courts.

Bayer has said it will seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court

resolve that conflict, and that a victory there could

effectively end the Roundup litigation.

Bayer had asked the Philadelphia state court to follow the

3rd Circuit and throw out the case. The 3rd Circuit's

jurisdiction includes federal courts in Pennsylvania, but state

courts are not legally bound to follow it. That bid was denied,

allowing the Melissens' case to go to trial, but the company is

appealing.