About 1,700 lawsuits covering 12,700 infants remain pending
Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay $670 million to resolve litigation over its specialty formulas for premature infants, settling the Gill lawsuit and roughly 2,000 related claims, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The bulk of the settlement relates to the Gill case, in which a Missouri jury in 2024 ordered Abbott to pay $495 million in damages after determining the company failed to warn that its formula for preterm infants increased the risk of a bowel disease. Abbott’s appeal of the 2024 verdict was denied.
Abbott said it opted to enter the agreements to resolve both the Gill case and other necrotizing enterocolitis claims, in order to avoid continuing to appeal or paying about $600 million for the Gill case alone — an amount the company said represents the initial judgment plus accrued interest to date.
The company said the agreements are not an admission of liability, and it stands by the safety of its products.
Following the agreements, roughly 1,700 lawsuits remain pending in federal and state courts, involving claims on behalf of about 12,700 individual infants, according to Abbott.
The Wall Street Journal’s Kelly Cloonan reported the settlement.