Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr plans to announce that the use of Tylenol by pregnant women may potentially lead to autism in children, according to a new report, which sent its manufacturer’s stock price plummeting.
A report from the Department of Health and Human Services, expected to be published this month, will also suggest ways in which symptoms of the developmental disorder, diagnosed in one in 36 U.S. children, can be treated.
Tylenol is a widely used pain reliever that can be bought over the counter in most pharmacies. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen.
Currently, women are permitted to take the medication while pregnant, and while some previous studies have indicated risks to fetal development, others have found no link. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it is safe for women to use Tylenol during pregnancy, though it recommends they consult with their doctors.
Kennedy’s report is likely to suggest that low levels of folate, also known as vitamin B9, and Tylenol taken during pregnancy, are both potential causes of autism, sources close to the matter told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on it.
HHS also plans to use a form of folate known as folinic acid, or leucovorin, as a possible way to decrease the symptoms of autism, the sources said.
The Independent has contacted the HHS and Kenvue for comment on the report.
Kennedy’s report is expected to be a review of existing research, according to people familiar with the matter. The Health Secretary has teased the report for months, telling President Donald Trump at a Cabinet meeting in April: “By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic.”
“I’m looking forward to that day… There’s something wrong,” Trump said at the time, later adding that “we maybe know,” the cause of autism. “There has to be something artificial causing this, meaning a drug or something,” he said.
However, questions have been raised as to the swiftness of the research and subsequent report, as studies into the causes of autism can take many years.
“We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates,” an HHS spokesman told The Journal. “Until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation.”
Following The Journal’s original report, shares in Kenvue, the company that produces Tylenol, dropped sharply and ended 9.4 percent lower when the markets closed on Friday, giving the shares their lowest close since August 2024.
It comes after a tumultuous week for Kennedy, who Senators grilled on Thursday over the recent mass exodus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Secretary’s recent actions on vaccines.
Kennedy, the son of the late Democratic attorney general and New York senator Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, has long promoted the idea that vaccines cause autism.
Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that Kennedy previously led, suggested that the report would also note this.
“I think that he’s going to talk about vaccines as well,” Hooker, an ally of the Health Secretary, told The Journal. “I do believe he will bring up the Tylenol connection, but I do also believe that he will look at vaccines and vaccine components.”
