He fought against damage claims from the infant formula. Now he regulates it.

The new head of the Division Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the infant use formula, has been a company lawyer in recent months who defended a top formula manufacturer against the claim that his product has had weakening damage to premature babies.

Kyle A. Diamanta joined the FDA last month to lead the food division and left the law firm Jones Day, who served as a talent pipeline at both Trump administrations.

As a partner in Jones Day's Miami office, Mr. Diamanta's recent work belonged to defending Abbott Laboratories in a lawsuit in which the company was accused of not adequately warning the parents that the special formula for premature babies was associated with an increased risk of a fatal intestinal condition.

Abbott lost the case and had to pay 495 million US dollars. Abbott appeals to the judgment. The role of Mr. Diamanta in this case and in other cases of Abbott was not reported before.

The head of the FDA food department plays a far-reaching role in securing the security of around 80 percent of food supply in the USA. In this job it is expected that Mr. Diamanta also takes on a leading role in the takeover of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agenda, which requires the reduction of additives in food and the removal of what Mr. Kennedy described as corruption in public health authorities.

“We will close the rotating door to restore the public's trust,” Kennedy told the health and human services employees in his first week of office.

The selection of Mr. Diamantas to lead the Food Division met the representative Rosa Delauro, who worked as a “betrayal” on questions of baby formula. It has been focusing on the infant use formula since 2022 when a great lack of formula began after Abbott had temporarily closed his system in Michigan formula

“The task of the FDA is not to protect our babies, not the companies that poisoned them,” said Ms. Delauro, a democrat of Connecticut, in an explanation by e -mail to the New York Times. “The appointment of a Abbott lawyer for monitoring food safety, which includes the infant use formula, has the fox guarded the chicken house.”

Mr. Diamanta did not answer a request for a comment. The FDA said that he would comply with his routine ethics contract with the agency, which includes the commitments to withdraw from certain matters in connection with Abbott and also from British American Tobacco, another prominent Jones Day customer. Officials from the health and human services refused to provide Mr. Diamanta's ethics agreement for the Times.

“Lord. Diamanta shares the secretary's vision of improving the nutritional results, ensuring that food supply is safe and healthy, and the general mission of the FDA to protect and promote public health,” said Andrew Nixon, spokesman for the Health and Human Services, Andrew Nixon.

The FDA has not published a formal announcement on the role of Mr. Diamanta, but on February 24, the agency set up a website on which he was listed as deputy commissioner for human food and he was referred to as a “top food manager”. He will also represent the agency in dealing with foreign governments and the White House.

Before he came to Jones Day in 2021, Mr. Diamanta (who was also shown on a photo on social media on a photo on social media on the hunting with Donald Trump Jr.) worked in another law firm. There he defended a cannabis company called Hempombs against claims about his CBD products that come from the cannabis facility. He also defended Whole Foods markets in a lawsuit in which it was claimed that it sold a CBD product that misleaded the user to believe that it would reduce the pain.

The FDA has occupied the position that CBD is not sure to expand food supply, and it has taken companies in situations to take a high risk. The agency began to determine how it would regulate CBD, but came to the conclusion in early 2023 that the congress had to start.

The fatal intestinal state, which is connected to the use of infants for premature babies in connection with premature babies, was also discussed on the FDA hundreds of lawsuits, although many claim that Abbott did not have the parents of the oversized risk of infection that occurs at very low babies with very low weight-½ pound or fewer instead of brewing milk.

In three cases submitted in a court in Missouri, Mr. Diamanta was admitted to represent Abbott in March 2024, as court files. In two cases, his role in court files was described as a representative of two Abbott sales employees.

He did not speak the jury against Abbott during the top-class court proceedings against Margo Gill, who ended with the jury received $ 95 million of compensation and $ 400 million in penalty losses against the company.

The case revealed whether Abbott Ms. Gill had adequately warned that babies with a very low weight, to which the child's formula is fed, is exposed to an increased risk of an intestine as necrotizing enterocolitis, which can quickly lead to the destruction of intestine and death.

With six weeks, Ms. Gill's daughter developed about 24 hours after feeding the Formula NEC. It left the intensive care unit for newborns or the intensive care unit with extensive chair and brain damage, as said from the court network, the statements were regarded. During the experiment, Ms. Gill said that at the age of 3, her daughter could not speak, go or eat without feeding tube.

Abbott did not argue that Ms. Gill had been warned and said it was the role of the doctor to advise families. During the trial in July, a lawyer of Ms. Gill, Jake Foltenberger, showed the jurors internal Abbott documents that state that infant food is “regarded as a contribution to the development of NEC”.

He also told the jury that about 90 percent of the premature babies who received the condition had been fed a formula. He showed a study with 1,800 premature babies, which came to the conclusion that the formula feeding increases the risk of a NEC by 180 percent.

James F. Hurst, the leading process lawyer of Abbott, argued that the formula did not cause the condition. The product is usually used in hospitals and referred to as “only for institutional use” and “use according to a doctor”. On a film that the jury was introduced, Mr. Hurst wrote: “Various words on Abbott's label (or elsewhere) would not have changed for the child.

He also argued that the injury cascade Ms. Gill's daughter, including brain damage, is related to other factors, including its birth complications and very low oxygen levels.

“These premature babies and beginners for breast milk are part of the supply standard for early infants and have been used safely for 45 years to nourish generations of Nicu -Babys,” said Abbott on Monday in a statement.

On July 26, the jurors stood on the side of Ms. Gill and awarded her family almost half a billion billion. Shortly afterwards, Robert B. Ford, the managing director of Abbott, warned publicly that the company may have to stop selling a formula for premature babies.

Mr. Ford turned to the FDA three days after the verdict and met with Dr. Robert Califf, the FDA commissioner and others in the Food Division.

Officials from the FDA and two other health authorities soon worked quickly on a consensus over NEC. However, a person familiar with the process who applied for anonymity to discuss the dialogue said that Formula companies had asked for government officials to create a consensus declaration, but does not dictate what they said. Some working group members had relationships with Abbott, for example by accepting spokesman fees that were not specially explained in the final report, such as records.

On October 3, the Ministry of Health published its conclusion: “1) There is no conclusive evidence that the premature -born -sequence formula causes NEC; and 2) There are strong indications that breast milk protects against NEC. “

The explanation provides Abbott's position in court and is expected to help the Formula manufacturers in upcoming cases. Since the Gill judgment, another similar case ended with a 60 million dollar judgment in favor of a family and another case led to a victory for formula manufacturers.

The FDA's food department takes care of countless other affairs in its role, which regulates most of the food supply. In the infant formula, the division, Abbott and other companies try to keep a high standard after the inspectors in Abbott's work in Michigan have discovered a leaky roof, pooled water and evidence of fatal bacteria. The facility was closed for an overhaul, which caused months of lack of infants to trigger a lack of use in 2022, in which the parents crawled.

The food department also carries out studies on illnesses transferred by food and works with states and other federal civil servants to use high-tech instruments to combine sick patients with contaminants in food plants or vegetable lows. The department has also introduced rules, which makes it easier to pursue food through the supply chain and to help farmers to ensure that irrigation water does not spread bacteria.

Mr. Kennedy has presented other priorities for the agency, including the examination of chemical additives in food. Mr. Kennedy sees at least one influential supporter of Mr. Diamantas as capital.

At the weekend of the inauguration, Vani Hari, an online activist for cleaning agents, who is known as Food Babe, said and had to meet and talk to Mr. Diamanta at three different events. The first time his wife leaned forward and said Ms. Hari that she had been a supporter of her blog for years.

“He is all on board to change the way the regulatory system works,” said Ms. Hari. Instead of seeing his work with Abbott and other companies as a potential conflict of interest, Ms. Hari said that he gave an insight into working with them.

“It is exactly the way the world works. The companies must be involved in these discussions, ”said Ms. Hari. “He is very passionate about the movement of Make America Healthy Healthy, but he is also very balanced. He will find a solution that is possible for everyone to change our food system. “

Julie Creswell contributed the reporting.