🔗 Share this article

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the producers of acetaminophen, asserting the firms hid potential risks that the pain reliever posed to children's cognitive development.

The court filing follows a month after Former President Trump publicized an unverified association between using Tylenol - referred to as paracetamol - while pregnant and autism in offspring.

The attorney general is taking legal action against Johnson & Johnson, which formerly manufactured the medication, the exclusive pain medication suggested for women during pregnancy, and Kenvue, which presently makes it.

In a declaration, he stated they "misled consumers by making money from suffering and promoting medication without regard for the potential hazards."

The manufacturer says there is no credible evidence tying acetaminophen to autism.

"These companies misled for generations, knowingly endangering numerous people to increase profits," the attorney general, from the Republican party, declared.

Kenvue stated officially that it was "deeply concerned by the dissemination of inaccurate information on the security of paracetamol and the possible consequences that could have on the welfare of US mothers and children."

On its official site, the company also said it had "regularly reviewed the relevant science and there is lacking reliable evidence that shows a verified association between consuming paracetamol and autism spectrum disorder."

Organizations acting on behalf of doctors and health professionals agree.

The leading OB-GYN organization has declared acetaminophen - the key substance in Tylenol - is one of the few options for pregnant women to treat pain and elevated temperature, which can present significant medical dangers if left untreated.

"In over twenty years of investigation on the utilization of acetaminophen in gestation, zero credible investigations has definitively established that the usage of paracetamol in any period of pregnancy leads to neurological conditions in young ones," the association said.

The court filing cites recent announcements from the Trump administration in asserting the drug is allegedly unsafe.

In recent weeks, Trump raised alarms from public health officials when he told women during pregnancy to "fight like hell" not to use acetaminophen when unwell.

Federal regulators then issued a notice that doctors should contemplate reducing the use of Tylenol, while also mentioning that "a causal relationship" between the drug and autism in young ones has not been proven.

Health Secretary Kennedy, who manages the FDA, had promised in April to initiate "extensive scientific investigation" that would establish the origin of autism in a matter of months.

But specialists cautioned that discovering a single cause of autism spectrum disorder - thought by researchers to be the consequence of a intricate combination of genetic and environmental factors - would not be simple.

Autism spectrum disorder is a form of enduring cognitive variation and condition that affects how people experience and engage with the world, and is diagnosed using doctors' observations.

In his lawsuit, Paxton - who supports Trump who is campaigning for the Senate - claims Kenvue and Johnson & Johnson "willfully ignored and attempted to silence the research" around paracetamol and autism.

The lawsuit aims to force the companies "remove any promotional materials" that states Tylenol is safe for expectant mothers.

The Texas lawsuit echoes the concerns of a group of parents of children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who sued the producers of acetaminophen in recently.

The court threw out the legal action, stating research from the plaintiffs' authorities was inconclusive.