Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton is suing Johnson & Johnson, alleging the corporate did not warn pregnant ladies about potential Tylenol dangers.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton is suing Johnson and Johnson, accusing the pharmaceutical firm of failing to warn shoppers concerning the threat of taking Tylenol whereas pregnant.
This lawsuit, the primary of its variety from a state authorities, comes a month after President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Well being and Human Providers Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. introduced up to date steerage discouraging pregnant ladies from taking acetaminophen, citing it as a potential reason for autism. The announcement set off a wave of controversy within the well being care neighborhood, and confusion amongst pregnant ladies not sure how they need to handle fever and ache throughout being pregnant.
The science round Tylenol and autism is unsure. Whereas some research recommend a correlation between taking Tylenol whereas pregnant and having a toddler with autism, others have repudiated these findings. Main medical associations rejected Kennedy and Trump’s claims as overly generalized and doubtlessly dangerous.
“The circumstances folks use acetaminophen to deal with throughout being pregnant are way more harmful than any theoretical dangers and might create extreme morbidity and mortality for the pregnant individual and the fetus,” Dr. Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American Faculty of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, stated in an announcement.
However this problem has been effervescent up for a lot longer than Trump and Kennedy have been in workplace. Dozens of individuals have filed private harm lawsuits towards Johnson and Johnson, and its company spin-off, Kenvue, alleging opposed neurodevelopment outcomes for his or her youngsters after taking Tylenol whereas pregnant.
These circumstances have been consolidated into multi-district litigation, which remains to be making its approach via the courts and being led by Ashley Keller of Chicago legislation agency Keller Postman. Keller has represented Texas in litigation towards Google and Meta, and has been contracted by the lawyer common’s workplace to deal with this new lawsuit towards Johnson and Johnson.
“[Paxton] figured I knew the science, I knew the historical past, I knew a number of the transferring elements,” Keller stated in an interview. “And so I’d be an apparent option to pursue this for Texans.”
Paxton, who’s working within the GOP major to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, stated in an announcement saying the lawsuit that “by holding Huge Pharma accountable for poisoning our folks, we are going to assist Make America Wholesome Once more.”
What the science says
Autism impacts roughly one in 31 American youngsters, and the speed of diagnoses has elevated virtually 300% during the last 20 years. Researchers attribute that rise to higher screening and an expanded definition of the spectrum of behaviors that qualify for a prognosis.
Kennedy, in distinction, has lengthy blamed the debunked concept that autism is attributable to frequent childhood vaccines. Since turning into well being secretary, Kennedy has vowed to determine and eradicate the foundation causes of autism, placing $50 million towards analysis.
Relabeling Tylenol was one among his first steps. Kennedy pointed to an August examine from the Harvard College of Public Well being and Mount Sinai Hospital that discovered pregnant ladies who reported taking acetaminophen appeared to be barely extra prone to have a toddler identified with autism, a conclusion different research have reached through the years.
However one of many largest research, which seemed on the well being data of two.5 million youngsters born in Sweden over 25 years, discovered that hyperlink went away after they checked out siblings the place the mum or dad took acetaminophen throughout one being pregnant however not the opposite.
It’s laborious to get a “100% definitive case closed on any matter” in epidemiology, Dr. Brian Lee, a Drexel College epidemiologist who authored that examine, advised the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being podcast. It will be unethical to provide pregnant ladies Tylenol simply to see if they’ve a toddler with autism, so researchers should depend on much less definitive strategies to find out how nice the danger is.
Whereas extra analysis is required, he stated, proper now, “the needle is pointing strongly towards there being no causal impact of acetaminophen use throughout being pregnant on autism.”
Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, has refuted the claims of a connection.
“Impartial, sound science clearly exhibits that taking acetaminophen doesn’t trigger autism. We strongly disagree with allegations that it does and are deeply involved concerning the well being dangers and confusion this poses for anticipating moms and oldsters,” the corporate stated on its web site.
Keller, the lawyer main the litigation towards Johnson and Johnson, stated it’s higher to tell folks concerning the potential dangers, and the uncertainty round them, and allow them to make their very own choices primarily based on that.
“It’s thoughts boggling to me that these main medical organisations would say, ‘We aren’t positive, and subsequently we must always say nothing,’” he stated. “The other is true: We’re not positive, and subsequently we must always sound the alarm.”
A federal choose not too long ago excluded the skilled witnesses that Keller had deliberate to current within the consolidated litigation towards Johnson and Johnson, “supposedly as a result of the science wasn’t robust sufficient,” he stated. That call has been appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals.
The lawsuit
Paxton’s lawsuit builds on these claims, saying Johnson and Johnson “willfully ignored and tried to silence the science” round acetaminophen and autism. Paxton takes particular purpose at a spin-off firm, Kenvue, which the go well with says was solely created to shelter Johnson and Johnson’s primary belongings from legal responsibility.
“Given the prevalence of acetaminophen use and these circumstances, there may be little doubt that Defendants must pay tens of billions of {dollars} in damages to youngsters who have been completely injured from acetaminophen use,” the lawsuit stated.
As lawyer common, Paxton has a special avenue into courtroom than a person making an attempt to show that Tylenol precipitated their youngster’s autism. Whereas these lawsuits deal with private harm claims, this go well with hinges on two state client safety legal guidelines, the Uniform Fraudulent Switch
Act and the Misleading Commerce Practices Act.
“That overlaps rather a lot with the science and with the argument that is happening about Tylenol proper now, however it’s in the end a special burden of proof and totally different damages that we’re going to be looking for,” Keller stated.
Texas has repeatedly sued Johnson and Johnson through the years, negotiating a $290 settlement over the corporate’s position within the opioid epidemic in 2021; tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in settlements over medical units; and $158 million for misleading advertising and marketing of the anti-schizophrenia drug, Risperdal.
