Abbott Laboratories to pay $385 million to settle baby-formula plant contamination case

Abbott Laboratories will pay $385 million to settle multiple claims stemming from a 2022 contamination investigation at its Sturgis, Michigan baby-formula plant, the largest in the United States. The recall of powdered formula, including Similac, strained an already tight supply caused by pandemic-related disruptions and stockpiling. The Justice Department and several state attorneys general had filed lawsuits, which the settlement now resolves without any admission of liability.

Abbott reported that government testing of unopened formula from households during the recall found no Cronobacter sakazakii, and that no distributed Abbott formula has ever tested positive for the bacterium. The plant was shut down in February 2022 after the FDA began its probe and was back in operation by June of that year. The settlement concludes a legal saga that began under the Trump administration and continued through the Biden administration’s emergency measures to address the formula shortage.