In 2024, a jury in St. Louis found that Abbott's infant formula caused an Illinois girl to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a dangerous bowel disease. Abbott had been appealing that verdict to Missouri's Supreme Court after a state court of appeals affirmed the judgment in May 2026.
About 1,000 similar lawsuits have been filed against Abbott, which makes Similac formulas, and Mead Johnson, a unit of Reckitt which manufactures Enfamil formulas. More than 800 of the cases are centralized in an Illinois federal court, with others pending in state courts including Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
What the litigation centers on
NEC, which mostly affects premature newborns, causes the death of bowel tissue and has an estimated mortality rate of more than 20%.
The companies have said that while breast milk protects against NEC, their formulas do not cause it and that the benefits of breast milk have long been known to clinicians.
U.S. regulatory agencies and a National Institutes of Health-convened working group said in a 2024 report that current evidence links higher NEC 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 CEO Robert Ford suggested in 2024 that the preterm products might become unavailable because of the litigation.
The companies have had a mixed record in the few cases to go to trial in state courts thus far, with some juries siding with the companies and others with the parents. The first bellwether, or test trial, is currently underway in Chicago in the consolidated federal litigation, after previous federal cases were dismissed before trial.
The case is Gill v. Abbott Laboratories, case number ED113162 in the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District.
Abbott reaches settlement in appeal
Abbott Laboratories has reached a settlement to resolve its appeal of a $495 million verdict over the company's specialized formula for premature infants.
Details of the settlement were not immediately available in court documents filed Monday in a Missouri appeals court.
A spokesperson for Abbott and attorneys for the plaintiff did not immediately respond to questions about the settlement.
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