NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania judge on

Tuesday slashed a $2.25 billion U.S. verdict against Bayer

to $400 million for a Pennsylvania man who said he

developed cancer from exposure to the company's Roundup

weedkiller.

A jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas found that

John McKivison's non-Hodgkins lymphoma was the result of using

Roundup for yard work at his house for several years, and it

ordered Bayer to pay $250 million in compensatory damages and $2

billion in punitive damages.

Judge Susan Schulman granted some of Bayer's post-trial

motions challenging that verdict, reducing compensatory damages

to $50 million and punitive damages to $350 million.

Bayer said it would continue to appeal to the Superior Court

of Pennsylvania, challenging the trial court's decision to allow

the jury to hear what it called misleading and "inflammatory"

testimony.

"While the court's decision reduces the unconstitutionally

excessive damage award, we still disagree with the ruling on the

liability verdict, as the trial was marred by significant and

reversible errors," a Bayer spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Bayer also called for U.S. legislative reform to protect

companies whose products comply with federal labeling

requirements.

McKivison's attorneys, Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, said they

were pleased that Schulman upheld the jury's finding that

Roundup causes cancer. But they also intend to appeal, seeking a

reinstatement of the $2.25 billion jury verdict.

"The reduction of the amount of the jury's verdict is a

clear departure from established Pennsylvania law that we plan

to address in an appeal," Kline and Itkin said in a joint

statement.

Bayer has said that decades of studies have shown Roundup

and its active ingredient, glyphosate, are safe for human use.

Roundup is among the most widely used weedkillers in the United

States, though the company phased out its sales for home use

last year.

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 in verdicts.

Some of those verdicts, like McKivison's, were later

reduced, but the cases ended a nine-trial winning streak for

Bayer and shattered investor and company hopes that the worst of

the Roundup litigation was over.

About 165,000 claims have been made in the U.S. against the

company for personal injuries allegedly caused by Roundup, which

Bayer acquired as part of its $63 billion purchase of U.S.

agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018. Most plaintiffs, like

McKivison, allege that the product caused non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

In 2020, Bayer settled most of the then-pending Roundup

cases for up to $9.6 billion but failed to get a settlement

covering future cases. More than 50,000 claims remain pending.