By Joe Fantini April 6, 2024

In recent months, more than 100 plaintiffs have filed defective drug lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson as well as retailers CVS, Costco, Family Dollar, Rite Aid, Safeway, Sam’s Warehouse, Target, Walgreens and Walmart.

The Tylenol lawsuits allege that evidence of the dangers of Tylenol and its active ingredient, acetaminophen, were available to the defendants, and that they failed to warn the public about the dangers of taking Tylenol during pregnancy Consequently, the lawsuits allege that the plaintiffs had children who suffer from ADHD and autism. The plaintiffs seek both economic and non-economic damages.

Procedural Posture of the Cases

Many of these lawsuits were filed in federal district courts, although their claims were based on state law. The lawsuits filed in federal court have been consolidated in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York as Multidistrict Litigation (MDL).

Johnson & Johnson asked the court to dismiss the lawsuits. It claimed that since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not require them to add a warning label, and since federal law trumps state law, the plaintiffs have no viable claim. The judge rejected Johnson & Johnson’s arguments, but Johnson & Johnson appealed the judge’s ruling to a federal Court of Appeals.

Current Status

So far, the federal Court of Appeals has yet to rule on Johnson & Johnson’s objection. Litigation has already begun, but it is still in its early stages. Right now, parties are engaged in pretrial discovery.

Pretrial discovery is a way for parties to use the threat of court sanctions to compel other parties to hand over or allow inspection of relevant evidence that is in their possession. Up until now (June 2023), the judge has rejected all motions to dismiss these cases.

Timeline

For the purposes of clarification, below is a general outline of the timeline of litigation in the Tylenol cases discussed above:

Keep in mind that under strict product liability law, the plaintiffs do not have to prove the defendants were at fault to win their claims. Instead, they need to prove that Tylenol was defective and unreasonably dangerous to pregnant women. It is also possible to win damages under a product liability theory based on negligence.

A victim can sue a retailer even though the retailer was not responsible for the toxicity of the product. That is why the plaintiffs have added so many retailers as defendants, even though Johnson & Johnson manufactured Tylenol.

Contact an Attorney If You Believe Your Child Was Harmed Because You Took Tylenol During Pregnancy

It’s not too late to join the ongoing litigation. In fact, legal experts expect such lawsuits to multiply exponentially during the coming months and years. Your claim should be reasonably strong if a medical professional diagnosed your child with ADHD or autism spectrum disorder after being exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy.

Schedule a free initial consultation with a personal injury team that has experience handling mass tort cases, especially cases involving defective drugs. Rosen Injury Lawyers has decades of experience handling defective drug claims. We’ve recovered hundreds of millions for our injured clients.

Contact us today for help. We work on contingency, so you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you first.