Preterm Infant Formula Argument Focuses on Feeding Alternatives

The availability of alternative feeding options was the central issue at oral arguments Wednesday in an appeal to determine whether a mother’s lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories over its alleged failure to warn about the risks of its preterm infant formula should be reinstated.

Judges for the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit focused their questions on whether a different warning label on Abbott’s Similac Special Care formula would have changed how the parents or the treating physician acted in a case where a preterm infant developed fatal necrotizing enterocolitis, a deadly intestinal disease.

The district court improperly resolved ...