Stock prices for the maker of Tylenol plummeted on Friday following a report that indicated the common painkiller is going to be cited as a cause of autism in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s report, which is anticipated this month.
Stock prices for Kenvue, the pharmaceutical company that makes acetaminophen by the brand name Tylenol, fell by more than 12% within half an hour of an article citing people familiar with Kennedy’s report published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday afternoon.
Buzz about Tylenol’s link to autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, started circulating on Tuesday this week when Trumpworld influencer Laura Loomer posted on X that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen could be “a possible contributing factor to autism” listed in Kennedy’s report.
Kenvue’s stock price was unaffected by Loomer’s X post.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in April indicates that roughly 1 in 31 children in the U.S. have autism spectrum disorder, up from 1 in 150 in 2000. During his announcement about the new data, Kennedy promised that he would publish a report identifying the causes of autism by September.
President Donald Trump, during a Cabinet meeting last month, praised Kennedy’s efforts in putting together the report on the environmental exposures that have caused the marked rise in autism diagnoses since the early 2000s.
Asked for comment, a spokesperson for HHS said that the agency is “using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates. Until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation.”
Acetaminophen is a common compound that is included in the formulas of many over-the-counter medications that provide pain relief, beyond Tylenol. That includes Alka-Seltzer Plus, DayQuil and NyQuil, and certain formulations of Benadryl, Robitussin, Excedrin, and Midol.
Acetaminophen has been deemed safe for use during pregnancy by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, but some studies suggest that the common medication could have some risks for fetal development.
In August, the journal Environmental Health published a meta-review analyzing existing literature on the association between acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and ADHD.
The meta-review found that the majority of studies included in the analysis “reported positive associations of prenatal acetaminophen use with ADHD, ASD, or [neurodevelopmental disorders] in offspring.”
“Appropriate and immediate steps should be taken to advise pregnant women to limit acetaminophen consumption to protect their offspring’s neurodevelopment,” the study concluded.
Since 2022, more than 100 lawsuits have been filed against Kenvue alleging negative consequences from prenatal exposure, according to the legal advocacy group the Birth Injury Center.
A Kenvue representative told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday following Loomer’s X post that the company does “advise expecting mothers to speak to their healthcare professionals before taking any over-the-counter medications, including acetaminophen.”
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Following the leak about Kennedy’s report on Friday and the subsequent stock price drop, the Kenvue spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that acetaminophen is “one of the most studied medications in history” and has undergone extensive review by the Food and Drug Administration.
The spokesperson also highlighted a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year, finding that the use of the drug during pregnancy “was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis.”
