Limits Are Urged on Painkillers Containing Acetaminophen

The prescription painkillers Percocet and Vicodin should be banned, and Tylenol, sold over the counter, should be taken in reduced doses, because one of the three medications' ingredients, acetaminophen, is linked to liver damage, federal advisers said.

Outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 20 to 17 yesterday for a ban on the pain drugs. The panel agreed earlier that Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol should be given in lower doses than recommended and that the extra-strength version should be sold by prescription only.

The agency is not bound by panel recommendations.

Vicodin, sold by Abbott Laboratories, and its generic equivalents are the most popular drug in the United States, with 124 million prescriptions last year, according to IMS Health, a data research company. Acetaminophen has been a leading cause of liver injury for more than a decade, even with efforts to educate users about the danger of taking too much, the FDA says.

"This is the best advantage that I've seen in preventing hepatic toxicity," or liver injury, said panel member Robert Levine, a gastroenterology professor at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. He said liver damage from acetaminophen has reduced the number of organs available for transplant.