Abbott to pay $851.6 million to settle some preterm infant formula cases

NEW YORK – Abbott said on Aug 20 that it reached a $670 million (S$851.6 million) settlement to partially resolve the ongoing litigation over alleged harms linked to its specialty formulas for preterm infants.The settlement was agreed to by three law firms representing about 2,000 people with claims against Abbott, including one Illinois mother who won a US$495 million judgment in 2024 after a jury concluded that Abbott’s formula caused her daughter to develop necrotising enterocolitis, a dangerous bowel disease.Abbott agreed to drop its efforts to appeal that verdict, which had been upheld by a Missouri appeals court in May 2026.Abbott did not admit liability in the Aug 20 settlement, saying it remains confident in the safety of its infant formula products.The company said in a statement that the deal is a step towards “substantially resolving the overall litigation”.Abbott, which makes Similac formulas, said about 1,700 lawsuits have ⁠been filed against it and Mead Johnson, a unit of ​Reckitt, which manufactures Enfamil formulas.Some of the lawsuits name both companies as defendants and some are filed on behalf of multiple plaintiffs.Abbott said it still faces claims from as many as 12,700 people alleging harms related to its or Mead Johnson’s formulas, though it said that total includes duplicate filings, claims involving infants who developed necrotising enterocolitis before receiving formula, and claims naming both manufacturers without specifying whose formula was used.Deadly bowel diseaseNecrotising enterocolitis, which mostly affects premature newborns, causes the death of bowel tissue and has an estimated mortality rate of more than 20 per cent.The companies have said that, while breast milk protects against the disease, their formulas do not cause it and the benefits of breast milk have long been known to clinicians.Abbott ⁠chief executive Robert Ford suggested in 2024 that the preterm products might become unavailable because of the litigation.US regulatory agencies and a National Institutes of Health-convened working group said in a 2024 report that ​current evidence links higher necrotising enterocolitis rates ​to the absence of breast ⁠milk, rather than to formula use.The products in question are cow’s milk-based formula and products for fortifying mother’s milk that are specially made for infants in hospital settings, not ordinary formula available to ​consumers in stores.Abbott said interest on the 2024 verdict would have entitled the plaintiff to about US$600 million, and the company chose to reach a settlement that also included other plaintiffs rather than continuing to fight the judgment or pay it in full.Attorneys for the plaintiff in that case, Margo Gill, an Illinois mother, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts. More than 825 federal cases have been consolidated before a judge in Chicago, while thousands of others remain pending in state courts, including in Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania.The companies have had mixed results in the relatively small number of cases that have gone to trial so far, with some juries siding with the manufacturers and others with plaintiffs.The first federal bellwether, or test case, against Mead Johnson is now under way in Chicago after earlier federal cases were dismissed before reaching trial. REUTERS