BMS announce breastfed equivalent brain and eye outcomes

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has announced that infants who have been fed its Enfamil LIPIL formula for the first 17 weeks of life demonstrate visual and IQ outcomes equivalent to breastfed children.

The study, which looked at four-year-olds that had taken the formula exclusively from birth, has been published in the journal Early Human Development.

Deborah Diersen-Schade, research fellow at Mead Johnson Nutritionals, indicated that the results confirmed the importance of breastmilk nutrients DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid) in an infant’s diet.

“What this study means for parents is that we now have even longer-term evidence that DHA and ARA supplementation at the levels in Enfamil LIPIL is associated with visual acuity and brain development benefits similar to breast milk,” she said.

She went on to stress that the nutrients were critical for the development of the eyes, brain and central nervous system and recent evidence has also suggested their importance in the development of visual acuity throughout the first full year of life.

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States granted the BMS compound ixabepilone priority review status.