Parents who bought recalled infant formulas made by Abbott Laboratories are filing proposed class-action lawsuits against Abbott, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigates reports of three babies who became sick and two who died after consuming the formulas.
At least half a dozen of those lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, with filings on Feb. 25 and March 1. Many of the lawsuits allege that north suburban-based Abbott failed to warn consumers about the risks of feeding the formula to their babies before they purchased it and that Abbott didn’t promptly replace the recalled formulas.
The FDA announced Feb. 17 it was investigating complaints of Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella Newport infections among four babies who reportedly consumed powdered infant formula made at an Abbott facility in Sturgis, Michigan. All four babies were hospitalized, and Cronobacter may have contributed to one baby’s death, according to the FDA.
