Oh, of course, acetaminophen/paracetamol is a generic, so it makes sense the pharma industry would prefer to push consumers to pain killers that are still under patent, like orphenadrine citrate, or just straight up opioids.

That would only work if there was an OTC drug that fit that bill.

Which isn't to say no one is working on one and just spreading FUD to lay groundwork for it.

Doing so four years early would be kinda silly, though, since people would presumably have forgotten what they read four years ago. I can't recall anything specific I read four years ago. And no such drug meeting that description has come out.

It's a stretch, yes. I could speculate six ways to Sunday, just as a thought experiment. I'm mostly getting my ideas from reading books like Merchants of Doubt.