(Bloomberg) — Kenvue Inc.’s shares fell after the Wall Street Journal reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is likely to link the company’s Tylenol painkiller to autism, though the agency said the news report was “speculation.” 

The federal government is expected to release its findings on autism this month. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Friday that it’s likely to say that use of over-the-counter pain medication with acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol, may cause autism.

But HHS pushed back on this. “We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement. “Until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation.”

Kenvue’s shares sank almost 17% Friday before paring losses for the day to 9.4%, the biggest drop since the company began trading in May 2023. The stock had declined 3.8% this year through Thursday’s close.

“Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products,” Kenvue said in a statement. “We have continuously evaluated the science and continue to believe there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism.”

In 2019, researchers at Johns Hopkins found that exposure to acetaminophen in the womb may increase a child’s risk for autism, though larger studies found no link. 

Lawsuits that drew a link between Tylenol and autism weren’t successful, however. 

In late 2023, a judge rejected the scientific evidence behind the lawsuits alleging prenatal exposure to over-the-counter Tylenol caused autism. US District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan concluded that plaintiffs in more than 400 suits against makers and sellers of acetaminophen relied on flawed science in seeking to prove an increased risk of developmental issues in babies.

A subsequent study published in 2024 that analyzed the records of nearly 2.5 million siblings born in Sweden from 1995 through 2019 found no increased risk of autism when their mothers took acetaminophen while pregnant. 

Tylenol consumers have asked a federal appeals court panel to overturn Cote’s ruling, but the New York-based appellate judges haven’t yet ruled in the case. Arguments in the appeal were held in December.

Doctors generally recommend that women take acetaminophen, rather than ibuprofen, when pregnant.

Kenvue has struggled this year as consumers cutback amid an uncertain economic climate. Last quarter, organic sales shrank 4.2%, the most since it was spun out of Johnson & Johnson in 2023. Prior to reporting those results, Kenvue parted ways with Chief Executive Officer Thibaut Mongon and initiated a strategic review aimed at reinvigorating growth.

–With assistance from Gerry Smith, Jef Feeley and Ike Swetlitz.

(Updates with closing shares. An earlier version of this story corrected the company name in the third paragraph.)

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