Producer
Abbott Nutrition (Abbott Laboratories)
Abbott Nutrition (Abbott Park, Illinois; division of Abbott Laboratories NYSE: ABT; FY2023 Abbott total revenue ~$20B; Nutrition segment ~$8B) is the largest US infant formula manufacturer by market share, producing Similac (the #1 US infant formula brand), Similac Pro-Advance, Similac for Supplementation, Similac Alimentum (hypoallergenic — elemental formula for cow's milk protein allergy), Pediasure (pediatric nutritional supplement), and Ensure (adult nutritional supplement). Abbott's Sturgis, Michigan facility — the primary US Similac manufacturing plant — became the center of the 2022 US infant formula shortage crisis. In February 2022, Abbott voluntarily recalled Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare powdered infant formulas produced at Sturgis after FDA inspections found Cronobacter sakazakii contamination linked to four infant hospitalizations and two deaths. Abbott shut the Sturgis plant (which produced approximately 40% of all US powdered infant formula) for approximately 4.5 months (February to late June 2022). The simultaneous shutdown of the dominant US plant for the dominant US brand — in a market where import certification barriers prevent rapid substitution with foreign formula — produced a national infant formula shortage. US stores implemented purchase limits; WIC program (which covers approximately 50% of US infant formula purchases) faced allocation crises. The shortage lasted approximately 6-8 months before supply normalized. Abbott's Sturgis facility resumed production in June 2022 under a consent decree with FDA.
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Did you know2019
Pedialyte — Abbott Nutrition's oral rehydration solution originally developed in 1966 for infants and toddlers with diarrheal dehydration — became a mainstream US adult hangover remedy and sports hydration product in the 2010s when social media spread its use among college students and athletes. By 2018, roughly one-third of Pedialyte sales were to adults (verified by Abbott market research), prompting Abbott to launch Pedialyte Sport with a reformulated electrolyte profile for athletic use. The WHO/UNICEF oral rehydration therapy that saves millions of children from diarrheal death in low-income countries and the hangover cure that US adults reach for on Saturday morning are the same medical technology — an electrolyte solution with carefully calibrated sodium-to-glucose ratio that the WHO added to its Essential Medicines List in 1984 and that Abbott sells in flavored grab-and-go pouches at Costco.
Wall Street Journal ↗Concentration2022
In February 2022, the FDA shut down Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis, Michigan infant formula plant — which produced approximately 40% of all specialized infant formula and 20% of total US infant formula — after detecting Cronobacter bacteria linked to infant illnesses. The shutdown triggered a nationwide infant formula shortage visible on empty store shelves by May 2022. The US infant formula market was so concentrated (Abbott ~38%, Reckitt/Mead Johnson ~35%, Nestle ~13%, store brands ~14%) that shutting one Abbott facility required Operation Fly Formula — Biden administration military airlifts of Nestlé Alfamino specialty formula from Switzerland and Germany, and emergency FDA authorization for European formula brands. The infant nutrition supply chain for America's 3.6 million annual births was so concentrated in two companies and so lacking in import-ready alternatives that it required military logistics within three months of a single plant closure.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration ↗