Kenvue Drops on Report RFK Jr. Will Link Tylenol to Autism
(Bloomberg) – Kenvue Inc.’s shares fell after Wall Street Journal’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The federal government is expected to publish its findings about Autism this month. On Friday, the magazine, referring to people familiar with the issue, said that the use of the active component in Tylenol, Acetaminofen and the overnight painkiller may cause autism.
But HHS pushed it back. “We use the gold standard science to reach the bottom of the unprecedented increase in the autism rates of America,” an HHS spokesman said. “Until he publishes the final report, any claim about his content is nothing more than speculation.”
Kenvue’s shares sank about 17% on Friday before putting losses for 9.4% for the day, the company has been the biggest decline since it started to be traded in May 2023. The stock decreased by 3.8% this year until the closing of Thursday.
“Nothing is more important than the health and safety of people who use our products to us, Ken Kenvue said in a statement. “We have constantly evaluated science and continue to believe that there is no causal connection between the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and autism.”
In 2019, researchers at Johns Hopkins found that exposure to acetaminophane in the uterus could increase the risk of autism, although bigger studies could not find any connection.
However, the lawsuits between Tylenol and Autism were not successful.
At the end of 2023, a judge rejected the scientific evidence behind the lawsuits allegedly caused by autism to be exposed to Tylenol on top of the counter. The US regional judge in Manhattan concluded that the plaintiffs are based on defective science in proved that the risk of developmental problems in infants has increased the risk of developmental problems in infants in more than 400 cases against the plaintiffs and acetaminofen vendors.
A subsequent study, which was published in 2024 and analyzed the records of approximately 2.5 million brothers born in Sweden from 1995 to 2019, could not find an increase in autism when their mothers took acetaminofen when they were pregnant.
Tylenol consumers asked a Federal Court of Appeal to overthrow Cote from the panel, but the New York -based appeal judges have not yet decided in the case. The discussions in the appeal were held in December.
Doctors generally recommend that women receive acetaminophen instead of ibuprofen when they are pregnant.
Kenvue fought this year because consumers fell in the middle of an indefinite economic climate. In the last quarter, organic sales shrunk by 4.2%, since he left Johnson & Johnson in 2023. Before reporting these results, Kenvue separated his paths with the Executive Officer Chairman Thibaut Mongon and launched a strategic investigation aimed at revitalizing growth.
-Help from Gerry Smith, Jef Feeley and Ike Swetiz.
(Updates with closing shares. An previous version of this story, the company corrected its name in the third paragraph.)
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