Abbott Laboratories has won a legal case claiming its Similac infant formula caused the death of a baby from necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
The US district court for the northern district of Illinois, eastern division, ruled last Thursday (23 October) a “judgment in favour of Abbott and against plaintiffs” in the case listed as Brown v. Abbott.
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In the court document and judgement ruling by the Honourable Rebecca Pallmeyer, the defendant’s infant was only described as DB.
Plaintiffs allege the infant started to be fed the described formula – Similac Special Care 24 (SSC-24) – in September 2021 but the infant then died a “few days” later from NEC.
Such specialised baby formulas are fed to premature infants but there have been a number of court cases claiming the powders can cause NEC, a life-threatening intestinal disease.
“In this lawsuit – one of hundreds of similar actions consolidated before this court by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation – DB’s parents allege that the formula’s design was unreasonably dangerous and caused DB to develop NEC,” the court document read.
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By GlobalDataIt added: “DB’s case is one of an initial wave of four bellwether cases, the first two of which ended in summary judgment for Abbott. Abbott seeks summary judgment in this third bellwether as well, arguing that the evidence does not support plaintiffs’ state law products liability claims.”
However, the court said it agreed with Abbott after the company “presented substantial and uncontested evidence as to utility of SSC-24 formula and the infeasibility of plaintiffs’ suggested alternative”.
Just Food has asked Illinois-based Abbott for comment on the case and for a statement from the company.
According to the court document, the case was initially filed in the Middle District Court in Louisiana but then was referred to the Illinois court in April 2022 as the “third of an initial round of bellwether trials”.
Plaintiffs claimed that instead of cow’s milk-based SSC-24 formula a design based on human milk might have been a “safer” alternative.
However, Abbott insisted its SSC-24 formula did not cause NEC in baby DB and argued the proposed design change suggested by the plaintiffs was “not economically or functionally practical”, according to the court document.
“The court concludes that summary judgment is warranted on the latter ground; the court notes concerns about plaintiffs’ causation theory below, but declines to address that issue definitively today,” it added.
