Tylenol is a brand of medication, advertised for reducing pain, reducing fever, and relieving the symptoms of allergies, cold, cough, headache, and influenza. An active ingredient in these medications is acetaminophen (paracetamol), an analgesic and antipyretic, although other ingredients with significant effects (such as codeine, caffeine or diphenhydramine) are included in some variants. Like the generic names paracetamol and acetaminophen, the brand name Tylenol is derived from a chemical name for the compound, N-acetyl-para-aminophenol. Tylenol is sold by Kenvue, until 2022 part of Johnson & Johnson.
Products The active ingredient in Tylenol products is acetaminophen (known as paracetamol in most countries), a widely used over-the-counter analgesic (pain reliever) and antipyretic (fever reducer). Formulations with additional active ingredients intended to target specific applications are sold under the Tylenol brand. These can include codeine as co-codamol, dextromethorphan, methocarbamol, guaifenesin, pseudoephedrine, caffeine, diphenhydramine, chlorpheniramine, and phenylephrine. Tylenol makes combination products containing acetaminophen and the antihistamine diphenhydramine under names such as Tylenol PM in the United States and Tylenol Nighttime in Canada. A form that contains dextromethorphan, pseudoephedrine, acetaminophen, and chlorpheniramine, is sold as Cotylenol.
History
The brand was introduced in 1955 by McNeil Laboratories, a family-owned pharmaceutical manufacturer. Two brothers took over the company from their father that year, and one of them subsequently learned about acetaminophen, which was not on the US market at the time. To avoid competing with aspirin, they marketed it as a product to reduce fever in children, packaging it like a red fire truck with the slogan, "for little hotheads". The brand name Tylenol and the United States Adopted Name acetaminophen were generated by McNeil from the chemical name of the drug, N-acetyl-para-aminophenol (APAP). Johnson & Johnson bought McNeil in 1959, and the following year the drug was made available over the counter. In 2023, Johnson & Johnson spun-off its consumer health brands, including Tylenol, into a new company, Kenvue, retaining significant ownership; the company later became completely independent. In 2025, President Donald Trump made several statements about a controversial and unproven connection between autism and Tylenol. These statements, about the connection between Tylenol during pregnancy and autism, are based on unreliable sources without scientific evidence. In October 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Kenvue, claiming that the company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act by concealing the risks of Tylenol in relation to autism. In November 2025, Kimberly-Clark announced that it was buying Kenvue in a $40 billion deal, and would thus be the new owner of the Tylenol brand.
Recalls
1982 Chicago Tylenol murders
On September 29, 1982, a "Tylenol scare" began when the first of seven individuals died in the Chicago metropolitan area after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been deliberately contaminated with cyanide. Within a week, the company pulled 31 million bottles of tablets back from retailers, making it one of the first major product recalls in American history. As a result of the crisis, all Tylenol capsules were discontinued, as were capsules of other brands. Calle & Company conceived the world's first tamper-resistant gelatin-enrobed capsule called "Tylenol Gelcaps", which proved to resuscitate 92% of the capsule-segment sales lost to the recall. The tamper-resistant, triple-sealed safety containers were placed on the shelves of retailers ten weeks after the withdrawal, and other manufacturers followed suit. The crisis cost the company more than US$100 million, but Tylenol regained 100% of the market share it had before the crisis. The Tylenol murderer was never found, (though later James Lewis was a prime suspect) and a US$100,000 reward offered by Johnson & Johnson remained unclaimed as of 2023. Before the poisonings, Tylenol brands held around 35% of the US market for acetaminophen and in the immediate aftermath, fell to 8%. Within a year sales had rebounded to the prior levels. J&J's handling of the crisis has been widely cited as an example of optimal crisis management. These events led to the widespread use of tamper resistance packaging of drugs by drug companies, to the 1982 passage of a US federal law making tampering a crime, and to legislation in 1989 requiring tamper-proof packaging.
2010 Tylenol recalls In January 2010, a voluntary recall of several hundred batches of popular medicines was announced, including Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids, Simply Sleep, St. Joseph Aspirin, and Tylenol. The recall was due to complaints of a musty smell suspected to be due to contamination of the packaging with the chemical 2,4,6-tribromoanisole. The full health effects of 2,4,6-tribromoanisole are not known but no serious events have been documented in medical literature. The recall came 20 months after McNeil first began receiving and investigating consumer complaints about moldy-smelling bottles of Tylenol Arthritis Relief caplets, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The recall included 53 million bottles of over-the-counter products, involving lots in the Americas, the United Arab Emirates, and Fiji.
Children's Tylenol
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