Abbott, Reckitt Fall as Judge Grants New Trial on Infant Formula

 Abbott Laboratories and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc shares fell as a judge ordered a new trial after rejecting a verdict that had cleared the companies of liability over claims they hid potential risks of their premature-infant formulas.

Abbott was down 4.2% in early trading in New York while Reckitt fell as much as 5.6% in London. Both were the biggest declines in about eight months.

The declines came after a state judge in St. Louis on Thursday ruled that the plaintiff — the son of Elizabeth Whitfield, on whose behalf she brought the case — had been denied a fair trial, granting a request for a new one. A jury last year rejected claims that formulas made by Abbott and Reckitt’s Mead Johnson unit caused necrotizing enterocolitis in Whitfield’s son.

Reckitt said Thursday’s ruling was “at complete odds with the law and the facts” and that the company would appeal it.

“The jury unanimously found, consistent with the scientific consensus, that Mead Johnson was not liable, and nothing the court has now cited justifies disregarding the jury’s determination,” Reckitt said in a statement, adding: “This is not a finding of liability. Should this ruling stand, the plaintiff is entitled only to a new trial.”

Abbott also said it would appeal and that it expected the jury’s verdict to be reinstated. The verdict was “consistent with the consensus of scientists, governmental regulators and the neonatologists who treat these vulnerable patients in intensive care units every day,” the company said in a statement.

Timothy Cronin, a lawyer for Whitfield, said the ruling “speaks for itself” after “an unfair trial for this little boy.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/abbott-reckitt-fall-judge-grants-145716141.html