Infant Formula-As Good As The Real Thing?
This essay was written, and read, by Dia on Marketplace, the business show of National Public Radio, on December 9, 1996. Dia L. Michels David Brancaccio, Marketplace Host: In Canada, two big drug companies are embroiled in a lawsuit over whose baby formula is the most like real breastmilk. Bristol-Myers Squibb, which once claimed its formula was modeled after mother's milk is now suing Abbott Laboratories for claiming its new formula "Similac Advance" is the equivalent of breastmilk. What is at stake is dominance in the US baby formula market, estimated to be worth more than a billion a year. The two companies controls about 50% each. As commentator Dia Michels explains, drug companies are not just worried about losing out to each other, but to the real thing. Dia Michels, Guest Commentator: Last year, the Canadian Food and Drug regulators ordered Bristol-Myers to stop saying their "Enfalac" baby formula was "modeled after mother's milk." This year, Abbott Labs made an even more brazen claim, introducing "Similac Advance" as the first formula truly equivalent to breastmilk. Only this time, rival Bristol-Myers has taken on the cop role by challenging Abbott's assertion of breastmilk equivalency. What a difference a year makes. This Canadian lawsuit signals a new trend in the infant feeding arena away from manufactured formula and toward breastmilk. For more than 20 years, two American drug companies have battled over market share in this lucrative industry, Abbott Laboratories and Bristol-Myers. Each company controls about 50% of the US baby formula market, estimated to top over $1 billion/year. Now, lost in the hype that formula is as good as breastmilk - is the real McCoy - breastmilk itself. Human breastmilk is an abundant, time-tested, natural resource, that is absolutely free. We've now raised two generations of formula-fed Americans have shown us that babies raised on formula get sick more often, get sicker when they get sick, and die more frequently than those who were breastfed. And breastfeeding helps cement the crucially important emotional bond between mother and child. Underscoring just how important breastmilk is is a new statement from the World Health Organization, listing formula as the fourth choice of infant feeding methods, following, in order, a mother breastfeeding her own baby, another woman wet-nursing the baby, and feeding human breastmilk acquired from a milk bank. But only half - half - of all new mothers in this country even try to breastfeed their babies. And of those, half again quit within a few months. World health authorities say that breastmilk should be the exclusive baby food for 6 months, and then, that breastfeeding should continue for a minimum of two years. Even the staid American Academy of Pediatrics is about to issue a bold statement on the advantages of breastfeeding. Today, 53% of new American mothers breastfeed. This is a 300% increase from just 30 years ago. More importantly, breastfeeding is again becoming the social norm. Change can be seen in the work world as well. For example, Amoco, the LA Department of Water and Power, Blue Cross/ Blue Shield of Massachusetts, even the Clinton White House are providing the time and facilities to enable breastfeeding in the workplace. It's no wonder manufactured formula is seeing its market share under attack. That's why Bristol-Myers went to court. The Bristol Myers lawsuit shows the formula makers are on the defensive, fearing that in spite of all their advertising, a different message is getting through: that breastfeeding is the best thing since, well .... since mother's milk. In Washington, I'm Dia Michels for Marketplace. David Brancaccio, Marketplace Host: Dia Michels is co-author of "Milk, Money & Madness: the culture and politics of breastfeeding." Dia L. Michels
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