Mead Johnson Loses Bid to Cancel $13.5 Million Jury Verdict
April 20, 2011, 6:16 PM EDTBy Tom Schoenberg
(Updates with Mead Johnson comment in sixth paragraph.)
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., the baby-formula maker that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. took public in February 2009, lost a bid to overturn a $13.5 million jury verdict in a false-advertising case over its product Enfamil.
A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, today affirmed a 2009 finding that the Glenview, Illinois-based company engaged in false advertising in a mailing to more than 1.5 million people that said “store brand” infant formula was inferior to its Enfamil LIPIL.
The suit was filed by PBM Products Inc., a unit of Perrigo Co. that makes store brand infant formula. PBM, based in Gordonsville, Virginia, sued Mead Johnson twice before over advertising campaigns.
“As the litigation history of the parties demonstrates, despite having twice been restrained from disseminating misleading advertising, Mead Johnson continued to do so,” Circuit Judge Andre Davis wrote. “PBM cannot fairly compete with Mead Johnson unless and until Mead Johnson stops infecting the marketplace with misleading advertising.”
Art Shannon, a spokesman for Perrigo, said, “We are very pleased” with the ruling.
Christopher Perille, a Mead Johnson spokesman, said in an e-mail that the company will comply with the court’s ruling.
“The case focused on a single direct mail piece, and the statements that the district judge decided should be discontinued have not been used for over a year,” Perille said.
The case is PBM Products LLC v. Mead Johnson & Co., 10- 1421, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Richmond).
--Editors: Peter Blumberg, Charles Carter
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.
