Mead Johnson Hit With $60M Verdict in First NEC Trial Over Preterm Infant Formula

An Illinois jury awarded $60 million on Wednesday in the first verdict involving cow’s milk-based infant formula that allegedly has sickened or killed premature babies.

Jurors in St. Clair County found that Mead Johnson was negligent and failed to warn about the risks that its preterm infant formula—which plaintiff Jasmine Watson’s baby, Chance Dean, was taking before he died at the hospital—could cause a gastrointestinal inflammation called necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC.