Five months after embarking on a “massive testing and research effort” to root out the cause of the nation’s “autism epidemic,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is getting ready to present his findings this month.
The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to release a report listing the use of Tylenol during pregnancy as a possible cause of the developmental disorder, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
“We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates,” an HHS spokesperson told Fierce Pharma. “Until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation.”
Tylenol is the popular brand name for acetaminophen, a painkiller first approved by the FDA in 1951. While Johnson & Johnson marketed the franchise for many years, the pharma giant split off its consumer healthcare unit into Kenvue more than two years ago.
Friday afternoon, shares in Kenvue dropped by about 10% in the wake of the report.
A spokesperson for Kenvue told the WSJ that the health and safety of people who use its products are of top importance to the company.
“We have continuously evaluated the science and continue to believe there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism,” the company told the newspaper.
Friday’s WSJ article comes as RFK Jr.’s self-imposed September deadline for the federal autism report nears. Back in April, the HHS secretary declared that he’d be starting a sweeping research effort to identify the cause of autism.
“We have launched a massive testing and research effort that is going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” RFK Jr. said at the time. “By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures.”
At the time, experts noted that the proposed timeline couldn’t allow for a proper research effort to take place.
RFK Jr. has long blamed vaccines for a rise in autism rates over the years, but large scientific studies have found no such link. The WSJ article said it’s “unclear” whether vaccines will feature in the upcoming HHS report.