Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
The company that manufactures Tylenol has been facing multiple lawsuits, and President Trump’s statement linking Autism and Tylenol could have an impact on the ongoing lawsuits. According to NPR one of the lawyers named Ashley Keller whose firm is handling a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer of Tylenol, Kenvue said “A lot of inbound calls have come in, as you would expect now that a very bright spotlight has been put on this issue.”
Almost two years ago courts had shut down an appeal in the lawsuit, but the comments made by Trump could still be used in a new appeal. In his statement connecting Autism and acetaminophen, Trump’s advice to pregnant women who have a fever or need pain relief was to “ride it out”. He mentioned that there were no issues with not taking Tylenol or generic versions of the medicine.
A press release from the FDA stressed that while the research and studies found an association between Autism and Tylenol there was no concrete evidence for causation. Keller had filed the first of many Autism and ADHD lawsuits against Tylenol; however in 2023 a judge ruled that the testimony of experts was to be excluded due to cherry picking and misinterpreting the data the experts were using.
Sonia Suter who teaches Law and Medicine at George Washington University School of Law told NPR “I think the judge’s other concern was that… the expert testimony was to claim that there was a causation, whereas the research itself never claims causation,” Dr. Aaron Kesselheim told NPR that product liability lawsuits are difficult because lawyers are required to prove causation and causation has not actually been established yet.
The other issue surrounding the lawsuits is the expert testimony of Dr. Andrea Baccarelli of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. According to The New York Times, Baccarelli consulted with top Trump Health Officials prior to the warning about Tylenol and Autism and he was paid at least $150,000 to be an expert witness for the plaintiffs suing Kenvue for Tylenol causing Autism. Baccarelli disclosed the figure in 2023 in a deposition he gave for court. The figure is also publicly available in federal court filings as well.
Baccarelli’s scientific review did not give any new data on outcomes of births from pregnancies where Tylenol was used but instead looked at 46 already used outcomes and studies that studied the risk of neurodevelopment disorders when using Tylenol during pregnancy. In her decision to dismiss lawsuits Judge Denise Cote said that within his testimony Baccarelli had “cherry-picked and misrepresented study results” making his testimony “unreliable.” The August 2025 Scientific Review made sure to disclose Baccarelli’s litigation involvement with a disclaimer stating, “This involvement may be perceived as a conflict of interest regarding the information presented in this paper on acetaminophen and neurodevelopmental outcomes.” Keller has filed another appeal using Trump’s statement that is supported by Baccarelli’s research with the courts.
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