<\/p>\nlink between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism<\/p>\n
<\/a>, a connection that remains unproven. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re pregnant, don\u2019t take Tylenol,\u201d Mr Trump said repeatedly at a White House news conference.<\/p>\n
Trump health administration officials said they would seek to update the drug\u2019s label and warn doctors against using the drug in pregnant women for routine fevers.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Johnson & Johnson survived the traumatic episode, rescuing a product it had manufactured for decades. <\/p>\n
But in 2023, looking toward its more profitable medical businesses, the company spun off Tylenol and other consumer brands into a new business, Kenvue. <\/p>\n
Based in Summit, New Jersey, Kenvue also makes other nostalgic and well-known brands, like Band-Aid, Listerine, Neutrogena and Johnson\u2019s Baby Shampoo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Renewed public attention on Tylenol began early in September, when The Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration\u2019s plans to release a report tying Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism. <\/p>\n
The company\u2019s stock has plummeted by 17 per cent since then, and closed down by 7 per cent on Sept 22.<\/p>\n
Before Mr Trump\u2019s remarks, Ms Melissa Witt, a spokesperson for Kenvue, said in a statement that \u201cwe believe independent, sound, science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism\u201d. <\/p>\n
She added, \u201cWe strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company did not respond to requests for a response to the President\u2019s warnings.<\/p>\n
Researchers have studied a potential connection for years, but so far the studies have not shown that Tylenol use among pregnant women causes autism.<\/p>\n
Kenvue has made repeated attempts to forestall the announcement, and to try to reassure customers. <\/p>\n
The company\u2019s interim chief executive Kirk Perry met earlier in September with Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the nation\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Witt confirmed to The New York Times that the company had \u201cengaged in a scientific exchange with the secretary and members of his staff as it relates to the safety of our products\u201d.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cconcerned about acetaminophen and autism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tylenol is the best known among some 600 products containing the active ingredient acetaminophen, an analgesic. <\/p>\n
Each week, nearly a quarter of US adults use a medicine that contains acetaminophen, according to a trade group for consumer health care products.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
\u201cAny potential threat to the product could have a noticeable impact on the firm\u2019s earnings power,\u201d Mr Kim Keonhee, a Morningstar analyst, wrote in a note to investors.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kenvue, along with major retailers that sell their own generic versions, was named a defendant in the litigation. <\/p>\n
But a federal judge rejected those claims, dismissing them for a lack of reliable scientific evidence. The families are appealing the decision.<\/p>\n
Far beyond Tylenol, Kenvue has been struggling with its direction as sales have slumped. <\/p>\n
In July, the company ousted its CEO Thibaut Mongon and replaced him with Mr Perry, a veteran in the consumer goods business. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON – The pain reliever Tylenol is a classic American brand, with tens of millions of users and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-164197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}