Last Monday, President Trump said that Tilenol is associated with autism. He was joined by healthcare officials -from left to right: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institute of Health, Dr. Marti Makari, Commissioner of the Office for Sanitary Supervision and Medicines, Minister of Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy -Merchmet, administrator of centers for medicinal and medical care.
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The announcement of President Trump last week, connecting Tylenol with autism, can play a role in current legal cases against the company that does this.
One lawyer representing patients who say that they suffered from the drug say that his company received an influx of more than a thousand calls this week from potential new customers asking for information.
“A lot of incoming calls came, as you should expect that now a very bright center of attention,” says lawyer Ashley Keller, whose company Keller submits people in a lawsuit for the responsibility for products against the drug manufacturer Kenva.
The attention of the Trump administration to this issue also gave the company new ammunition in their appeal to the lawsuit, although the courts actually removed it almost two years ago.
The President, surrounded by federal health officials, said that acetaminophen, the general name for Tilenol, “may be associated with a very increased risk of autism.”
During the press conference, officials said that the management of products and medicines will begin the process of updating the security label for tilenol and acetaminophen.
“Thus, Tylenol is not very good to accept,” the president told reporters. “Fine. I will say that. This is not good. ” He further suggested that pregnant women can “tear it out” if they have a fever, and said that “there is no shortage” so as not to accept painkillers.
Later Press release From FDA it was more measured and noted that although some studies have discovered an “association” between painkillers and autism, they did not establish, in fact, anesthetic called autism. The press release also states that acetaminophene is the only safe over-the-counter painkillers for pregnant women, which can be taken from fever, which can be harmful to the developing fetus.
Keller says that he filed among the first trials, claiming that the prenatal effects of acetaminophen caused autism or ADHD. But in 2023 The judge decided to exclude The certificate from the experts that he and his colleagues gathered to help substantiate them. Judge Denise Cat from the Southern District of New York wrote that the experts “chose cherries” and incorrectly interpreted the data on which they relied.
“I think that another concern of the judge was that … the testimony of experts was to claim that there was causality, while the study itself never claimed a cause -effect relationship,” says Sonya Soter, Professor who teaches law and medicine At the University of George Washington, the University of Law did not participate in the case. “Thus, there was a discrepancy between the testimony for the purpose of being an expert certificate and exactly what the results of the study showed.”
But since the Trump administration brought one of these experts, Dr. Andrea Bakarelli, in his announcement this week, Keller and his team submit a new letter to the court in support of their constant appeal.
“One thing that I think is important is that his scientific analysis was considered reliable enough for officials of the executive branch of our country to earn,” says Keller from Bakarelli. “And this is a pretty good sign that his scientific examination was reliably applied. And so this may be a corresponding consideration for the court of appeal. ”
The Harvard Public Health School at Harvard, where Bakkarelli is a dean, said that it is not available for an interview.
Oral arguments in the appeal begin on October 6, says Keller.
Nevertheless, legal experts are not so sure that the announcement of the administration will be of great importance for the judge, because there is no new data.
“I don't think this means that they have more chances,” he says Dr. Aaron KesselheimProfessor of medicine in Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he created a program for regulation, therapy and law. “Nothing basically changed in the study. Science today is the same as last week, and to all this nonsense. ”
According to him, cases of responsibility for products are difficult to prove. Ultimately, lawyers will have to prove a causal relationship that has not yet been established.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that this will not cause a large headache for the manufacturer Tylenol, Kenvue, who refused Johnson & Johnson in 2023.
“I think that the president has something very dangerous, using his powers to make statements that are not supported in science,” says Sater. “I think this is very dangerous for public health care.”
As for Kenvue, he made a statement that says that he does not agree with what kind of assumption that the adoption of acetaminophen causes autism, because decades of scientific research show that it is safe. Further in the statement it was noted that “high fever and pain are widely recognized by potential risks of pregnancy, if they are not treated.”
