Class Action Alleges Little Remedies Infants’ Acetaminophen Costs More than Exact Same Children’s Product

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Prestige Consumer Healthcare, Inc. faces a proposed class action that claims the drug manufacturer’s Little Remedies acetaminophen product marketed for infants costs more than its children’s counterpart even though the two medications are “exactly the same.”

The lawsuit alleges Prestige designed the packaging of its Little Remedies Infant Fever + Pain Reliever product to mislead parents and caregivers into thinking the medication is specially formulated for infants “or otherwise possesses some unique medicinal quality” that makes it appropriate for infants as opposed to older children. In truth, the suit says, the product contains the same medication in the same dosage as the defendant’s Little Remedies Children’s Fever + Pain Reliever product despite costing almost twice as much.

All told, the case alleges Prestige exploits parents and caregivers’ fear of giving their infants an incorrect dosage of acetaminophen by deceiving them into thinking they must purchase the more expensive infants’ product instead of the medication marketed for use by children.

“Defendant deceives consumers into buying the deceptively-labeled Infants’ Products for infants, which cost significantly more than the Children’s Products, even though both Products are identically-formulated and contain the same amount of acetaminophen in the same dosage amounts,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit explains that ever since 2011, manufacturers have sold liquid acetaminophen for both infants and children only in dosages of 160 mg per 5mL to avoid accidental overdoses caused by confusion regarding different concentrations of the drug. Now, the only difference between acetaminophen marketed for infants and children is the price and the dosing instrument included with the product, the suit says.

Thus, the defendant’s Little Remedies Infant Fever + Pain Reliever and Children’s Fever + Pain Reliever products are interchangeable given they contain the same concentration of acetaminophen, the lawsuit argues.

Per the complaint, Prestige’s “deceptive marketing techniques” fail to disclose “critical facts” to consumers—particularly that infants can safely take the Children’s products and that the two products are “exactly the same.”

“Like the packaging of the Infants’ Product, nowhere on the label of the Children’s Product does Defendant state that the formulation of the two medicines is entirely identical,” the complaint alleges.

Nevertheless, Prestige charges almost twice as much per ounce for the infants’ acetaminophen as the children’s product, the suit says.

According to the case, the plaintiffs would never have purchased the Little Remedies Infants Fever + Pain Reliever product, or paid as much as they did, had they known the truth.

The lawsuit against Prestige is part of an ongoing trend of litigation alleging retailers such as Walmart, Rite Aid, Dollar General and Target have deceptively labeled infants’ acetaminophen.

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