April 5 (Reuters) - A Missouri judge slashed a $1.56

billion verdict against Bayer to $611 million for

three people who claimed its Roundup weed killer caused their

cancer, by reducing punitive damages. Bayer said on Friday it is

appealing.

The German company's Monsanto unit had been found liable in

November by a Cole County, Missouri, jury to Valorie Gunther of

New York, Jimmy Draeger of Missouri and Daniel Anderson of

California, who blamed their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on their

exposure to Roundup.

Jurors found Monsanto liable for negligence, design defects

and failing to warn about Roundup's risks. They awarded $61.1

million of compensatory damages and $1.5 billion of punitive

damages, with the latter divided equally among the plaintiffs.

In orders on March 15, Judge Daniel Green let the $61.1

million component stand, but reduced punitive damages to nine

times that amount, or $549.9 million.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that punitive damages should

generally not be more than nine times compensatory damages.

Bayer had sought to throw out the verdict, as well as reduce

damages, and filed a notice of appeal on March 22.

It has said decades of studies have shown that Roundup and

its active ingredient glyphosate are safe.

"While the court reduced the unconstitutionally excessive

damage award, the company believes that the court did not apply

the law correctly on damages," Bayer said on Friday. "We also

disagree with the ruling on the liability verdict as it is at

odds with the extensive weight of scientific evidence."

Bart Rankin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a

statement the reduced awards are "unassailably constitutional,"

and "align with the evidence of Monsanto's willful, malicious,

and reckless disregard for the safety of consumers and the

injuries suffered by these plaintiffs."

Roundup is among the most widely used weedkillers in the

United States, though Bayer phased out sales for home use last

year.

Bayer has faced extensive litigation over whether Roundup

causes cancer since it bought Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.

It agreed to settle much of that litigation for $10.9

billion in 2020, but failed to resolve future cases. About

113,000 of the 167,000 claims that Bayer has faced have been

settled or deemed ineligible.

Though Bayer has won the majority of its more recent Roundup

trials, plaintiffs have won more than $4 billion of verdicts,

including $2.25 billion in a single case in January. Bayer is

appealing those verdicts.