(NEW YORK) \u2014 Abbott is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, in relation to their infant formula business, the company disclosed in a new SEC filing.
\nAbbott said in a filing Friday that they received a subpoena from the SEC\u2019s Enforcement Division in December 2022 requesting \u201cinformation about its powder infant-formula business and related public disclosures.\u201d
\nIn January, Abbott \u201creceived a civil investigative demand\u201d from the FTC seeking information in connection with the agency\u2019s investigation of companies that bid for infant formula contracts with the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program through USDA.
\nAbbott\u2019s disclosure of these inquiries come after the Justice Department had already launched a criminal investigation into Abbott\u2019s infant formula manufacturing conduct, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News, after contamination concerns triggered a massive recall and shutdown at their Sturgis, Michigan, plant last year.
\nAn Abbott spokesperson told ABC News they are \u201ccooperating with the government investigations.\u201d
\nAn FTC spokesperson declined to comment to ABC News on Saturday.
\nABC News has also reached out to the SEC for comment and have not yet heard back.
\nThe discovery of Cronobacter sakazakii bacteria inside Abbott\u2019s Sturgis plant prompted a massive voluntary formula recall last February, after four babies who had consumed Abbott\u2019s formula contracted a Cronobacter infection. Two of the infants subsequently died, although Abbott maintains there has not been conclusive evidence that its formula caused the infant illnesses, since none of the Cronobacter strains found at their plant matched the two samples genetically sequenced from the sickened infants.
\nUltimately, it was the combined findings of Cronobacter inside Abbott\u2019s plant \u2014 along with operational deficiencies identified by federal investigators and consumer complaints \u2014 which led to the plant\u2019s closure.
\nAfter inspecting Abbott\u2019s Sturgis facility last year, FDA chief Dr. Robert Califf described the \u201cshocking\u201d and \u201cegregiously unsanitary conditions\u201d investigators had found.
\n\u201cStanding water; cracks in the key equipment that present the potential for bacterial contamination to persist, particularly in the presence of moisture; leaks on the roof; a previous citation for inadequate hand washing,\u201d Califf testified before Congress in May. \u201cMany signs of a disappointing lack of attention to the culture of safety, in this product that is so essential to the lives of our most precious people.\u201d
\nAbbott\u2019s recall ricocheted across American groceries and families\u2019 pantries, exacerbating an already mounting supply issue, and forcing families to scramble for what their babies needed for months.
\nDuring the height of the severe shortage last May, the FTC had already launched an inquiry into the formula crisis, probing potential unfair and illicit enterprises which may be exploiting parents\u2019 desperation amid the crisis.
\nThe news of these latest inquiries into Abbott also follows the recent health expert analysis which called out major formula companies, Abbott included, for \u201cexploitative\u201d marketing and aggressive lobbying practices.<\/p>\n
Everettpost<\/p>\n
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(NEW YORK) \u2014 Abbott is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, in relation to their infant formula business, the company disclosed in a new SEC filing. Abbott said in a filing Friday that they received a subpoena from the SEC\u2019s Enforcement Division in December 2022 requesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1594,2328,2539],"class_list":["post-6169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-abbott","tag-infant","tag-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6171,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions\/6171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}