Abbott Laboratories must pay $495 million in damages in the case of a girl who developed a serious gastrointestinal disease as a premature infant after consuming Abbott formula, a Missouri jury decided Friday evening. The jury awarded the girl $95 million in compensatory damages in the Abbott formula trial. #AbbottFormulaTrial
The company must also pay $400 million in punitive damages. Half will go to the girl, and half will go to the state of Missouri, said attorneys representing the family in the Abbott formula trial.
The lawsuit is one of hundreds against Abbott and Mead Johnson, alleging their formulas cause necrotizing enterocolitis in premature infants. This disease inflames and damages the tissue lining the intestine.
This was the first case against Abbott over the issue to go to trial. In a similar case that went to trial earlier this year in Illinois against Mead Johnson, a jury awarded $60 million in damages to a woman whose son died of NEC after consuming Mead Johnson’s cow’s-milk-based premature infant formula.
The Abbott trial began earlier this month in Missouri Circuit Court in St. Louis after Illinois resident Margo Gill sued the company. Gill alleged her daughter Robynn Davis was given Abbott’s cow’s-milk-based infant feeding products as a premature infant, which caused her to develop NEC. Davis, who was born in 2021, had to undergo extensive surgery because of her NEC diagnosis and continues to suffer from long-term health issues. #AbbottFormulaTrial
“Despite knowing of the risk of NEC, Abbott did not warn of the significantly increased risk of NEC (and resulting medical conditions, and/or death) associated with its products, or of the magnitude of this increased risk,” the lawsuit alleged.
