March 14 (Reuters) - An Illinois jury has ordered

Reckitt Benckiser ( RBGPF ) unit Mead Johnson to pay $60 million

to the mother of a premature baby who died of an intestinal

disease after being fed the company's Enfamil baby formula.

The jury in an Illinois state court in St. Clair County on

Wednesday found that Mead Johnson was negligent and that it

failed to warn of the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).

The disease, which causes the death of bowel tissue, mostly

affects premature newborns and has a fatality rate of about 15%

to 40%.

The $60 million verdict includes compensation for plaintiff

Jasmine Watson's loss and grief, and for the pain and suffering

of her baby, Chance Dean.

The verdict comes in the first trial out of hundreds of

lawsuits claiming that various Enfamil and Abbott Laboratories'

Similac formulas caused NEC.

According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, there

is evidence that formula increases the risk of NEC in premature

infants compared with breast milk.

"This verdict confirms what Mead Johnson has known for

years: cow's-milk based baby formula causes NEC in preterm

infants, often with fatal consequences," Ben Whiting, a lawyer

for Watson, said in a statement.

Mead Johnson said in a statement that it was disappointed

with the verdict and would appeal it.

"We continue to believe that the allegations from the

plaintiff's lawyers in this case were not supported by the

science or experts in the medical community," it said.

More than 400 NEC lawsuits against Mead Johnson and Abbott

are pending in federal court in Chicago, and others, like

Watson's are in state courts.

Plaintiffs in the cases say that the companies concealed the

fact that their formula, including products made specifically

for premature infants and others, was riskier than alternatives

like donor milk.

The companies have denied the allegations.

The NEC lawsuits are separate from ongoing litigation

against Abbott over the shutdown of its Sturgis, Michigan, plant

and subsequent recall of batches of baby formula for possible

contamination, which contributed to a nationwide formula

shortage in 2022.

Abbott has denied that it distributed tainted formula.