- Company has scheduled dividend payment for November 26
- Paxton said Kenvue concealed Tylenol’s risks to kids when taken during pregnancy
- Kenvue, Johnson & Johnson, doctors say Tylenol is safe
CARTHAGE, Texas, Nov 14 (Reuters) – A Texas state judge won’t block Kenvue (KVUE.N), opens new tab from paying its scheduled $398 million shareholder dividend on November 26, rejecting a request by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a lawyer for the consumer health company told Reuters on Friday.
Paxton, a Republican who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in 2026, sued Kenvue on October 28, accusing it of concealing the risks to children when pregnant women use Tylenol.
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The lawsuit was filed five weeks after Republican President Donald Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated the scientifically unproven claim that using the popular medication during pregnancy can cause autism.In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told doctors to alert patients to what it said was growing evidence linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism. Medical societies dispute a Tylenol link to autism.
Kenvue has repeatedly said Tylenol is safe.
Judge LeAnn Rafferty in the Panola County courthouse in Carthage, Texas, near the Louisiana border, issued the ruling from the bench on Friday.
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is unusual for a local court, applying state law, to exercise power over issues fundamental to a multinational company’s business model, including its ability to communicate with the public and pay shareholders.
Concerns about Tylenol have been an overhang for Kimberly-Clark’s (KMB.O), opens new tab planned $40 billion takeover of Kenvue, which was announced six days after Paxton sued.That merger would let the maker of Kleenex and Huggies diapers expand into higher-margin categories such as skin care and pain relief, by acquiring Kenvue brands including Band-Aid, Johnson’s Baby shampoo, Listerine and Neutrogena.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Sheila Dang; Additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Bill Berkrot and Paul Simao
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