Abbott, Reckitt unit defeat claims in baby formula trial
The jury deliberated for less than a day before clearing them of responsibility for causing necrotising enterocolitis
ABBOTT Laboratories and a unit of Reckitt Benckiser Group were cleared by a jury over claims they hid risks in their premature-infant formulas can cause a bowel disease that severely sickened a baby boy.
Jurors in state court in St Louis issued the verdict on Thursday (Oct 31), marking the first victory for the companies as they face more than 1,000 similar cases and both have previously lost trials, including one that ended with an almost US$500 million verdict against Abbott in July in the same courthouse.
The jury deliberated for less than a day before clearing Abbott and Reckitt’s Mead Johnson subsidiary of responsibility for causing necrotising enterocolitis, or NEC, in the baby whose mother sued. Some researchers have found that NEC can cause bowel problems that lead to brain injuries and even death.
Abbott rose about 5 per cent in after-hours trading. The deluge of lawsuits against Abbott and Reckitt have raised concerns among stock analysts that a series of court losses will weigh down shares. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Holly Froum and Diana Gomes said in an Oct 29 note that the companies face as much as US$2.5 billion in liability exposure over the litigation.
Representatives of Illinois-based Abbott and UK-based Reckitt didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the verdict.
Abbott said in July it may have to pull Similac for premature infants off shelves if juries continue to side against the company. Abbott chief executive officer Robert Ford has said in the past he’s “hopeful” the product can stay on the market.
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The trial, which lasted more than a month, was the first time jurors weighed allegations about both Abbott’s Similac formula and Reckitt’s Enfamil in a single case.
The case was about a boy born to Elizabeth Whitfield at 28 weeks who was diagnosed with NEC after consuming some of both companies’ formulas while in a St Louis hospital’s intensive-care unit. He’s been diagnosed with developmental delays and severe gastrointestinal problems.
In addition to the July verdict against Abbott, an Illinois jury in March awarded US$60 million to the family of a baby who developed NEC after being fed Reckitt’s product. Both companies contend their formulas don’t cause NEC and have appealed the verdicts they lost.
As part of their defence, lawyers for Abbott and Reckitt pointed to a recent report by federal regulators – including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – that found “no conclusive evidence” that premature-infant formula causes NEC.
Rebecca Fitzpatrick, one of Abbott’s lawyers, told the jury that Similac for premature babies has been sold in the US for more than four decades.
“After 40 years, that formula hasn’t suddenly become a dangerous product,” she said in her closing argument.
Phyllis Jones, a lawyer for the Reckitt unit, told jurors Whitfield’s son got little more than an ounce of the company’s Enfamil formula and that such a small amount couldn’t have caused NEC.
In addition, the child “had a lot going on” with his health before he was diagnosed with NEC, Jones told the panel. He had to deal with in-utero infections, and tests showed that his family may have been genetically pre-disposed to develop the bowel disease, Jones said. Arguments that Reckitt’s product played a role in his disease “simply fail,” she said.
Attorneys for the Whitfield family argued that the companies concealed what they knew about the formulas’ risks while they spent millions of dollars marketing their products at hospital intensive-care units and among doctors who treat such at-risk children.
Abbott and Reckitt have been “putting profits over babies born prematurely for decades,” Tim Cronin, one of the family’s lawyers, told the jury. “They are preying on premature babies and their parents.” BLOOMBERG
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