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Tylenol Maker, Pharmacy Chains Urge US Appeals Court to Revisit Decision Over Alleged Autism Link
The maker of Tylenol and a group of retailers and pharmacy operators asked a federal appeals court to revisit its decision to revive more than 500 private lawsuits over the painkiller’s alleged link to autism. In a filing on Thursday, the defendants including Tylenol maker Kenvue told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan it should have deferred to a district judge’s decision to exclude expert testimony from three doctors who linked Tylenol’s use during pregnancy to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
The defendants said that in reviving the lawsuits on July 13, the appeals court gave short shrift to a federal rule of evidence that makes district judges the “true gatekeepers” who decide whether evidence is reliable enough to be admitted at trial.
“Treating plaintiffs’ baseless theory as a jury question [is] exactly the sort of incorrect application of that rule,” the defendants said. “Lay juries are not scientists and thus lack the specialized knowledge to resolve complex and unsettled scientific questions.”
The plaintiffs include parents and guardians of children allegedly affected by Tylenol. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Harvard and Yale Researchers Awarded $46 Million to Study Autism’s Origin in the Brain
Two Harvard Medical School researchers and one Yale University professor were awarded a $46 million grant from a privately funded autism initiative to study how the condition first emerges in the developing human brain, according to an HMS announcement last week.
The award comes from Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a philanthropic effort launched in 2024 to fund research on autism and accelerate the development of treatments. It will fund four linked projects and ARIA’s new Human Developmental Neurobiology Hub, which will be co-led by Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology professor Paola Arlotta and Nenad Sestan, a neuroscience professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
Yale announced in late August that its share of the award totals nearly $25 million.
Arlotta’s lab will grow brain organoids — three-dimensional tissue models derived from patients’ stem cells — to observe developmental processes that cannot be studied directly in humans. The approach lets researchers study early brain development across large groups of people with and without autism, using tissues grown from their own cells.
Study of 1.9 Million People Finds a Striking Link Between ADHD and Gut Problems
Researchers at the University of Warwick have found a striking association between ADHD and digestive health after analyzing data from more than 1.9 million people across 23 studies. Overall, people with ADHD were almost 50% more likely to experience gastrointestinal symptoms than people without ADHD.
Some individual conditions showed even stronger associations. People with ADHD had nearly twice the odds of constipation, a 58% increase in irritable bowel syndrome, and more than four times the odds of encopresis (loss of bowel control). ADHD is estimated to affect about 5% of children and 3-4% of adults worldwide, while reported diagnosis rates have increased sharply over the past four decades.
Digestive problems have already been well documented among people with autism spectrum disorder. At the same time, scientists have gathered increasing evidence for a ‘gut-brain axis’ that connects digestive health with neurodevelopmental conditions more broadly. Until now, however, researchers have had a less complete picture of how frequently gastrointestinal symptoms occur in people with ADHD.
California Enacts Laws Restricting Chatbots and Banning Teens From ‘Addictive’ Social Media
California teens will be barred from “addictive” social media products and limited in their interactions with chatbots under two of the 13 bills signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom today to protect kids online.
The law on addictive social media may be the most controversial. It will require social media companies to either stop offering “addictive” tools like infinite scroll and autoplay to users under 16 or to keep those users off their platforms entirely. Authors say the law is necessary to address a teenage mental health crisis and that it will force social media companies to take long-awaited action.
“Parents can’t compete. Can’t compete with the engineering, can’t compete with the algorithms,” Newsom said at a press conference announcing the laws. “You feel like you’re a lousy parent.”
Autism Linked to Early Exposure to a Common Plastic Additive
Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is commonly added to plastics to make them more flexible. It may also affect genes that play a critical role in brain development, promoting symptoms of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Researchers from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health led a study comparing the results of blood and urine screens from pregnant mothers with behavioral assessments on their young children.
Their analysis found concerning links between an elevated exposure to the plasticizer in the mother’s urine, changes to the functioning of hundreds of genes in umbilical cord blood, and a relative increase in signs of autism and ADHD at ages 2 and 4.
