A Union Parish couple has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Abbott Laboratories of failing to provide warnings that its Similac Alimentum preterm baby formula can increase the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis and other digestive ailments.
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 17 in the Western District of Louisiana by Jennifer and John Paul Ramsey, whose premature child was born in 2021 after 36 weeks of pregnancy. The complaint maintains that cow’s-milk-based preterm formula products such as Similac may cause some infants to develop NEC and other intestinal ailments, potentially causing inflammation or death.
“The way in which the Defendant Abbott Laboratories Inc. product was fed to (the Ramseys’ child) M.R. was extremely dangerous and caused an unreasonably high risk that he would develop NEC, yet the defendant … provided no detailed instructions or warnings to prevent or alter the way this product was used,” the lawsuit says.
The Ramseys are among multiple families nationwide who are pursuing lawsuits against infant formula manufacturers that allege the products lead to unacceptable risks of NEC. But Abbott Laboratories stands behind its products and the medical research underpinning it.
“Abbott has spent decades researching, developing, testing and producing formulas and fortifiers for premature infants, and countless infants have benefited tremendously from these products,” an Abbott statement emailed to the Louisiana Record says. “These allegations are without merit, advancing a theory promoted by plaintiffs’ lawyers rather than the medical community, which considers these products part of the standard of care for premature infants.”
The lawsuit claims that as the medical community began to favor a breast-milk diet for preterm infants, Abbott developed a “human milk fortifier” and engaged in marketing that implies the products are derived from breast milk when in fact they are cow’s-milk-based products, according to the complaint.
“Abbott was aware of the significantly increased risk of NEC and death associated with their cow’s-milk-based products, and instead of warning of the dangers, or removing them altogether, Abbott has continued to use cow’s milk as the foundation of their products,” the complaint says.