Bayer AG extended Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann’s contract through April 2024, a vote of confidence in a leader who oversaw the acquisition of Monsanto Co. and the wave of litigation that came with the U.S. chemical maker.

Bayer said in a statement Thursday that its supervisory board lengthened Baumann’s term by three years, heeding his “personal plans” on the matter instead of going for the maximum potential of four years. The move amounts to a vote of confidence in Baumann’s efforts to guide the German company through the thicket of Monsanto legacy lawsuits.

Baumann’s tasks in the coming years include setting Bayer’s pharmaceutical unit back up for profitable growth as two blockbuster medicines lose patent protection. He’ll also need to build out the company’s crop-science business, which has been hamstrung by suits over Monsanto weed killers Roundup and Dicamba.

Baumann set the US$63 billion Monsanto deal in motion just weeks after taking over as CEO in early 2016. The move deepened Bayer’s commitment to a conglomerate model -- combining crop science, pharmaceuticals and consumer health under one roof -- at a time when many rivals have rigorously sharpened their focuses.

Bayer’s shares are down more than 40 per cent under Baumann’s watch, with most of the loss coming after a surge in U.S. lawsuits claiming that Roundup causes cancer. Bayer has denied that.

Baumann in April won a vote of confidence from shareholders, a year after they handed him an unprecedented rebuke after voting against absolving management of responsibility for its actions. Former Chairman Werner Wenning, a co-architect of the Monsanto deal, left earlier this year.

On the Roundup front, Bayer said Thursday that it’s made progress with plaintiff attorneys on a revised plan to manage and resolve potential future lawsuits. Details of the revised plan will be finalized in coming weeks, and a motion for preliminary approval will be filed after a formal agreement has been reached, Bayer said.

Elizabeth Cabraser, a California lawyer for plaintiffs who was involved in the Bayer-supported proposal for handling future Roundup claims, didn’t immediately return an email for comment Thursday.

The Leverkusen, Germany-based company announced a US$12.1 billion plan in June to settle lawsuits over products it inherited with the Monsanto deal, including Roundup and Dicamba. But Bayer still hasn’t resolved tens of thousands of current Roundup cancer claims or finalized the deal covering future claims.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who is overseeing some Roundup suits, cast doubt in July about the validity of a Bayer-backed proposal for handling claims filed after it resolves existing suits over the herbicide. After those comments, Cabraser and other plaintiffs’ lawyers pulled their proposal.

Optimism over the progress in resolving future claims prompted the company to begin signing off on settlements for existing cases, Bayer said Thursday. Some plaintiffs’ lawyers accused the company last month of reneging on the agreements after Chhabria raised questions about the plan for future cases.

The company agreed in June to pay as much as US$9.6 billion to resolve 95,000 of the 125,000 lawsuits by Roundup users claiming the weedkiller caused their cancers. The figure also includes a set-aside to cover settlements in the remaining 30,000 cases.

Roundup users blame glyphosate -- Roundup’s active ingredient -- for causing their non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. Three California juries held Bayer liable for causing plaintiffs’ illnesses and ordered the company to pay billions of dollars in damages. Those awards ultimately were cut to a combined $190 million.

The case is In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, MDL 2741, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).