Baby Formula

I am a Republican and a businessman. I am the owner and chairman of a very successful film production company, and I know what it takes to make $1 honestly, let alone to make $4 billion. I got so excited about Ross Perot and decided that for a change a successful businessman might be able to put us all on the right track.

Did the allies bomb Iraq's only infant formula plant? Or was it really a biological weapons factory in disguise? That question provided the latest skirmish in the propaganda war between Iraq and the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf War. Early Wednesday, Cable News Network reporter Peter Arnett, the only Western reporter still allowed in Iraq, reported that he had been taken to what Iraqi authorities described as a baby formula factory that had been destroyed in allied bombing.

The nation's top three makers of infant formula illegally conspired to drive up prices and keep other manufacturers out of the industry, Florida's attorney general charged in an antitrust suit today. Atty. Gen. Bob Butterworth filed a civil complaint in Tallahassee federal court against Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Ill., American Home Products Corp. of New York City and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., also of New York City.

Federal authorities subpoenaed the records of the nation's biggest baby formula manufacturers after state welfare officials and consumer advocates made allegations of price fixing, a representative of one of the companies said today. "This is a top-priority, front-burner investigation," said Kevin J. Arquit, head of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition. He said authorities have not concluded that price fixing occurred. The companies denied the allegations.

A United Nations conference to promote breast-feeding denounced last week the practice of distributing baby formula free to new mothers, particularly those in developing nations. The conference urged closer regulation of the marketing of baby formula to encourage breast-feeding, which is considered a key to lowering infant mortality. Doctors said even mothers who have tested positive for the AIDS virus should breast-feed.

A judge found a man guilty of first-degree murder in the sulfuric acid poisoning of his infant son in what prosecutors said was a scheme to sue a commercial baby formula manufacturer. Ricky Irby Sr., 29, could face the death penalty. Lake County Associate Judge Harry Hartel, who presided over a two-week, non-jury trial in Waukegan, Ill., set a sentencing hearing for June 29.

The Orange County Rescue Mission has started a drive to collect baby formula for needy infants who are no longer eligible to receive nutritional assistance through a county administered food program. Mission spokesman Jim Palmer said his agency is seeking nearly 3,000 cans of baby formula to help children turned away from the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program, which last week was forced to reduce services because of a funding shortfall.

A Gerber research plant is retooling to resume production for a market of one: a profoundly allergic 15-year-old boy who cannot live without a special baby formula the company stopped making five years ago. For a few days this month, one quarter of the production space at the Gerber Products Co. research center in Fremont, Mich., will be devoted to making MBF, a formula that only Raymond Dunn Jr. needs and which Gerber is providing free.

When Carnation Co. entered the $1.6-billion baby formula market last year with two new products, Good Start H. A. and Good Nature, it drew instant flak. The FDA and nine state attorneys general pounced on Good Start, questioning whether it was really, as advertised, "hypoallergenic." The American Academy of Pediatrics pounced on Carnation for advertising formula to consumers at all. Often linked, these are two separate issues.