Tylenol ADHD lawsuits cannot go forward, judge rules
By Brendan Pierson
Aug 20 (Reuters) -Plaintiffs claiming that Kenvue's KVUE.N popular painkiller Tylenol causes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the children of mothers who took it while pregnant have lost a last ditch bid to revive their claims after a judge rejected their last remaining expert witness.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that the cases against Kenvue and retailers like Walgreens WBA.O and Walmart WMT.N still remaining in the litigation could not survive without the key expert testimony, and entered judgment against them. The retailers sell store-brand generic versions of the drug.
Cote had previously dismissed about 550 cases centralized before her, which alleged that Tylenol and its generic versions caused ADHD or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). About 58 ADHD cases remained as of Aug. 1.
"The court's ruling continues to align with the position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and leading medical organizations that have thoroughly evaluated this — the science does not support causation," Johnson & Johnson Consumer, the Kenvue subsidiary that sells Tylenol, said in a statement. Kevnue was formerly Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N consumer health division but was spun off last year and is now an independent company.
Ashley Keller, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, declined to comment. Walgreens and Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The multidistrict litigation was centralized before Cote in October 2022. Plaintiffs had begun filing lawsuits earlier that year, claiming retailers had failed to warn pregnant users of acetaminophen, Tylenol's active ingredient, about neurological risks to the fetus. The plaintiffs named J&J as a defendant later in the litigation.
Last December, Cote ruled that none of the five expert witnesses offered by the plaintiffs to testify that acetaminophen could cause ADHD and ASD had used a sound scientific methodology and could not testify at trial. She said that the experts "unstructured approach" allowed "cherry-picking" and a "results-driven analysis."
She went on to enter judgment against the roughly 550 cases pending at the time of that order, which is now being appealed.
However, plaintiffs continued to file new lawsuits and offered a new expert to testify that acetaminophen could cause ADHD, though they no longer sought to prove a link to ASD. Last month, Cote rejected that expert as well, and ordered the plaintiffs to show cause why the remaining cases should not be dismissed.
Plaintiffs' lawyers argued that they could support their case with statements from one of the defense experts, ADHD researcher Stephen Faraone, acknowledging that some studies showed an association between acetaminophen and ADHD
Cote, however, said the plaintiffs "seize on fragments from Dr. Faraone's extensive writings and prior statements and misleadingly portray those fragments." She said Faraone's own analysis showed that there was no strong evidence for causation.
The case is In re: Acetaminophen ASD/ADHD Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1:22-md-03043.
For plaintiffs: Ashley Keller of Keller Postman; Daniel Burke of Bernstein Liebhard; and Lindsey Scarcello of Wagstaff & Cartmell
For Walgreens: Kristen Richer of Barnes & Thornburg
For Walmart: Kristen Fournier of King & Spalding
For Kenvue: Jessica Davidson of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Read more:
Lawsuits claiming Tylenol causes autism lack scientific support, judge finds
Mass tort launched for claims that acetaminophen caused autism, ADHD
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York)
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