Lawsuits against Tylenol's maker get a boost after Trump's comments

Last Monday, President Trump said Tylenol is linked to autism. He was joined by wellness officials — from left: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, head of nan National Institutes of Health, Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of nan Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg/Getty Images

President Trump's announcement past week linking Tylenol pinch autism could play a domiciled successful ongoing ineligible cases against nan institution that makes it.

One lawyer representing patients who opportunity they were harmed by nan supplier says his patient has gotten an influx of much than a 1000 calls this week from imaginable caller clients asking for information.

"A batch of inbound calls person travel in, arsenic you would expect now that a very agleam spotlight has been put connected this issue," says lawyer Ashley Keller, whose patient Keller Postman is representing group successful a merchandise liability suit against nan drugmaker Kenvue.

The Trump administration's attraction to nan rumor has besides fixed nan patient caller ammunition successful its entreaty of nan lawsuit, though nan courts had efficaciously changeable it down almost 2 years ago.

The president, flanked by national wellness officials, declared that acetaminophen, nan generic sanction for Tylenol, "can beryllium associated pinch a very accrued consequence of autism."

During nan property conference, officials said nan Food and Drug Administration would statesman nan process of updating nan information explanation for Tylenol and acetaminophen.

"So taking Tylenol is not good," nan president told reporters. "All right. I'll opportunity it. It's not good." He went connected to propose that pregnant women could "tough it out" if they person a fever and said location was "no downside" to not taking nan symptom medication.

A later press release from nan FDA was much measured and noted that though immoderate studies recovered an "association" betwixt nan painkiller and autism, they had not established whether nan painkiller successful truth caused autism. The property merchandise besides said that acetaminophen is nan only safe over-the-counter symptom medicine for pregnant women to return for fever, which tin beryllium harmful for a processing fetus.

Keller says he revenge what was among nan first lawsuits alleging that prenatal acetaminophen vulnerability caused autism aliases ADHD. But successful 2023, a judge ruled to exclude grounds from nan experts he and his colleagues had gathered to thief make their case. Judge Denise Cote of nan Southern District of New York wrote that nan experts "cherry picked" and misinterpreted nan information they were relying on.

"I deliberation nan judge's different interest was that… nan master grounds was to declare that location was a causation, whereas nan investigation itself ne'er claims causation," says Sonia Suter, a professor who teaches rule and medicine astatine nan George Washington University School of Law and was not progressive successful nan case. "So location was an inconsistency betwixt nan grounds for purposes of being an master witnesser and precisely what nan findings of nan study showed."

But since nan Trump management cited 1 of those experts, Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, successful their announcement this week, Keller and his squad are filing a caller missive pinch nan tribunal to support their ongoing appeal.

"One point that I deliberation is important is that his technological study was considered reliable capable for our nation's executive branch officials to credit," Keller says of Baccarelli. "And that's a beautiful bully motion that his technological expertise was reliably applied. And truthful that could beryllium a applicable information for nan Court of Appeals."

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, wherever Baccarelli is nan dean, said he isn't disposable for interviews.

Oral arguments successful nan entreaty statesman connected Oct. 6, Keller says.

However, ineligible experts aren't truthful judge nan administration's announcement will make overmuch quality to a judge because there's nary caller data.

"I don't deliberation it intends that they person a amended chance," says Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine astatine Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, wherever he created nan Program connected Regulation, Therapeutics and Law. "Nothing fundamentally has changed astir nan research. The subject is nan aforesaid coming arsenic it was past week and earlier each this nonsense."

Product liability cases are reliable to prove, he says. Ultimately, lawyers will person to beryllium causation, which hasn't yet been established.

Still, that doesn't mean it won't origin a large headache for Tylenol's manufacturer, Kenvue, which spun disconnected from Johnson & Johnson successful 2023.

"I deliberation there's thing very vulnerable astir nan president utilizing his powerfulness to make statements that are not supported successful nan science," says Suter. "I deliberation that is very vulnerable for nationalist wellness generally."

As for Kenvue, it issued a connection saying it disagrees pinch immoderate proposal that taking acetaminophen causes autism, because decades of technological investigation show that it is safe. The connection went connected to statement that "high fevers and symptom are wide recognized arsenic imaginable risks to a gestation if near untreated."