Last winter, Brian Noonan read online that some doctors were prescribing an obscure drug , typically given to cancer patients, for autism. Curious, he looked into it for his son Benjamin, who had just been diagnosed with autism in October.

“We jumped on it,” Noonan said. “It felt right and it made sense.”

The medication was leucovorin, also called folinic acid . It’s a synthetic form of vitamin B9 or folate, which the body needs to make healthy blood cells. During pregnancy, folate is important to reduce the risk of birth defects .

Last Monday, the drug was thrust into the national spotlight by President Donald Trump in a rambling press conference about autism that mainly focused on the president and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s claim that taking acetaminophen during pr

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