WASHINGTON – The pain reliever Tylenol is a classic American brand, with tens of millions of users and a 70-year history. The company behind it, Kenvue, is just two years old and unknown to most Americans.
But on Sept 22, US President Donald Trump ignited a growing public relations nightmare for the company.
In extraordinary remarks giving direct medical advice, he claimed there was a
link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism
, a connection that remains unproven.
“If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol,” Mr Trump said repeatedly at a White House news conference.
Trump health administration officials said they would seek to update the drug’s label and warn doctors against using the drug in pregnant women for routine fevers.
Tylenol has weathered crises before. In the 1980s, Tylenol became the textbook example of how to manage a corporate crisis, after product tampering killed seven people and triggered a nationwide panic.
Johnson & Johnson survived the traumatic episode, rescuing a product it had manufactured for decades.
But in 2023, looking toward its more profitable medical businesses, the company spun off Tylenol and other consumer brands into a new business, Kenvue.
Based in Summit, New Jersey, Kenvue also makes other nostalgic and well-known brands, like Band-Aid, Listerine, Neutrogena and Johnson’s Baby Shampoo.
Renewed public attention on Tylenol began early in September, when The Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration’s plans to release a report tying Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism.
The company’s stock has plummeted by 17 per cent since then, and closed down by 7 per cent on Sept 22.
Before Mr Trump’s remarks, Ms Melissa Witt, a spokesperson for Kenvue, said in a statement that “we believe independent, sound, science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism”.
She added, “We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
The company did not respond to requests for a response to the President’s warnings.
Researchers have studied a potential connection for years, but so far the studies have not shown that Tylenol use among pregnant women causes autism.
Kenvue has made repeated attempts to forestall the announcement, and to try to reassure customers.
The company’s interim chief executive Kirk Perry met earlier in September with Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the nation’s health secretary, to make the case that there was no link between Tylenol and autism and that the product offered a safe and important way of relieving fevers in pregnant women, according to an account in the Journal.
Witt confirmed to The New York Times that the company had “engaged in a scientific exchange with the secretary and members of his staff as it relates to the safety of our products”.
In September, the company also added language to the frequently asked questions section of its website seeking to reassure consumers that they should not be “concerned about acetaminophen and autism”.
Tylenol is the best known among some 600 products containing the active ingredient acetaminophen, an analgesic.
Each week, nearly a quarter of US adults use a medicine that contains acetaminophen, according to a trade group for consumer health care products.
Even with the generic competition, Tylenol still generates roughly US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) in annual sales for Kenvue, according to an estimate from Morningstar, the financial services company. (Kenvue does not report its revenue from Tylenol.)
“Any potential threat to the product could have a noticeable impact on the firm’s earnings power,” Mr Kim Keonhee, a Morningstar analyst, wrote in a note to investors.
Even before Trump officials amplified the issue, Tylenol had been hit with lawsuits from families who claimed that their children were diagnosed with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder after Tylenol use during pregnancy.
Kenvue, along with major retailers that sell their own generic versions, was named a defendant in the litigation.
But a federal judge rejected those claims, dismissing them for a lack of reliable scientific evidence. The families are appealing the decision.
Far beyond Tylenol, Kenvue has been struggling with its direction as sales have slumped.
In July, the company ousted its CEO Thibaut Mongon and replaced him with Mr Perry, a veteran in the consumer goods business.
In recent months, the company has generated interest from activist investors who have pushed for the company to be acquired, or to sell off some of its business lines. NYTIMES