Overview
(September 1, 2026, Chicago) – A federal jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois returned a full defense verdict on Monday for Steptoe client Mead Johnson, maker of Enfamil infant formula, following a two-week trial and roughly five hours of deliberation. The case marks the first bellwether trial to reach a jury verdict in the multidistrict litigation (MDL) over cow's milk-based infant formula and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), in which more than 800 complaints are pending against either Mead Johnson or Abbott Laboratories in the Northern District of Illinois.
A multi-firm trial team composed of attorneys from Steptoe (led by Rachel Cannon) and Covington & Burling (led by Phyllis Jones) represented Mead Johnson before US Senior District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer. The jury rejected the plaintiff’s claims that Mead Johnson's Enfamil Premature formula was defectively designed and that the company failed to adequately warn healthcare providers of NEC risk in connection with Plaintiff’s premature son's death. The case is Inman et al. v. Mead Johnson & Co. LLC et al.
Following the verdict, Mead Johnson issued a statement reaffirming its position: "We strongly reject any assertion that any of our products cause NEC, and we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against all such claims in the interest of safeguarding the health of premature babies."
The NEC litigation began in late 2019. To date, Mead Johnson has achieved solid successes at trial. Judge Pallmeyer, who has previously granted pretrial wins to Abbott Laboratories in three other bellwether cases, allowed the Inman case to proceed to trial. Outcomes for Mead Johnson in parallel state court proceedings have been largely favorable. Mead Johnson's first trial resulted in a loss in March 2024, but the verdict was recently reversed on appeal. A defense verdict in favor of Mead Johnson and Abbott in St. Louis in September 2024 was vacated by the trial court, but that decision is now on appeal. A third Mead Johnson trial resulted in a complete defense verdict in St. Louis in June 2026.
Against that backdrop, this clean defense verdict — the first from a federal jury in the MDL — offers another significant signal for the hundreds of remaining bellwether and MDL cases, as well as for parallel state court litigation nationwide.
The case is part of In re: Abbott Laboratories, et al., Preterm Infant Nutrition Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3026.
About Steptoe
In more than 110 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients and innovative thinking before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
