Abbott agrees to $670 million settlement of infant formula cases

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August 20, 2026 4:55 PM EDT

FILE PHOTO: Abbott Laboratories logo is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 18, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Dietrich Knauth

Aug ‌20 (Reuters) - Abbott ​said ​on Thursday it reached a $670 million settlement with three law firms to resolve legal ‌claims by 2,000 people who alleged harms relating ⁠to the company's specialty formulas for preterm infants.

The settlement ‌includes one large case in ‌which Abbott had already been ordered to pay $495 million. In 2024, a jury in St. Louis ​found that Abbott's infant formula caused an Illinois girl to develop necrotizing enterocolitis, 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.

Necrotizing enterocolitis, 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 the disease, their ‌formulas do not cause it and the benefits of ⁠breast milk have long ‌been known to ​clinicians.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth and Sneha S K; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Edmund ‌Klamann)


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