By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) – Abbott Laboratories must defend against a proposed class-action lawsuit claiming it misled consumers into believing its PediaSure Grow & Gain nutrition drinks were “clinically proven” to help children grow taller, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer said that while Abbott’s claim that PediaSure was “clinically proven to help kids grow” didn’t specify the type of growth, its use on labels of a cartoon giraffe and ruler-like marks that climbed to the giraffe’s head could readily support a belief that “grow” referred to height growth and “gain” referred to weight gain.
In a 75-page decision, the Manhattan judge also said jurors could find that Abbott’s commercials reinforced the message that PediaSure promoted height growth, including an ad showing a boy playing basketball with taller boys and saying he has “a lot to look up to.”
Abbott and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. James Denlea, a lawyer for the consumers, said he was pleased with the decision.
• PediaSure is part of the Abbott Park, Illinois-based company’s nutritional segment, whose brands also include Pedialyte and Similac.
• The lawsuit was filed in May 2023 by Joanne Noriega, a Bronx, New York, grandmother who said she bought PediaSure Grow & Gain vanilla and strawberry drinks for her 8-year-old grandson.
• Noriega said that after a year of drinking two PediaSure drinks per day, her grandson was still short for his age but had become “so overweight” that she stopped buying the drinks.
• Abbott has said that PediaSure is intended for children ages 2 to 13, and helps them “grow out of at-risk weight-for-height percentiles (5th-25th percentiles)” within eight weeks.
• Engelmayer also excluded some testimony by expert witnesses for both sides.
• He rejected Abbott’s bid to dismiss testimony by a Columbia Business School professor who said Abbott’s marketing made clear that “grow” referred to height, and consumers would not see or understand disclaimers that the PediaSure was studied in children “at risk” of malnutrition.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)
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