Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to two pharmaceutical companies in an investigation seeking to find whether the companies might have “deceptively advertised and promoted hormone blockers for unapproved uses without disclosing the potential risks to children and their parents.”
The investigation began in December of last year. Last Thursday, Paxton issued the CIDs to AbbVie Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
“Companies should never promote or supply puberty blockers for uses that are not intended or approved,” Paxton said. “I will not allow Big Pharma to misleadingly promote these drugs that may pose a high risk of serious physical and psychological damage to Texas children who cannot yet fathom or consent to the potential long-term effects of such use.”
The medications in question — Supprelin LA, made by Indevus Pharmaceuticals, a division of Endo Pharmaceuticals; and Lupron Depot, made by AbbVie, Inc. — are puberty blockers and have been approved for use in treating central precocious puberty, a condition in which puberty comes abnormally early for a child.
Paxton requested “documents sufficient to identify all hormone blocker products that you sell, market, or distribute or have sold, marketed, or distributed from January 1, 2019, to the present.”
In addition, the state seeks “all documents related to the marketing and promotion of hormone blockers in Texas, including all branded and unbranded marketing materials, advertising, and educational materials, that contain information regarding the usage of hormone blockers, and/or off-label uses of hormone blockers.”
Neither drug has been FDA approved for the treatment of gender dysphoria — a psychiatric condition which leads many to consider “gender-reassignment” treatments, up to and including “sex-change” surgeries. Yet, the state suspects that both drugs have been used as a treatment for “gender reassignment.”
Paxton is also requesting the drug companies to produce correspondence they might have had with healthcare workers in Texas regarding the drugs, the marketing and sales plans for the drugs, and any training materials provided to healthcare employees.
AbbVie, Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have until April 14 to provide the AG’s office with the “documentary material” it has requested.
In a statement, Endo Pharmaceuticals claimed that it doesn’t promote the Supprelin LA for off-use purposes. “Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc manufactures and markets Supprelin LA for the treatment of children with central precocious puberty. The Company does not promote its medications for off-label uses. That said, we intend to cooperate with this investigation,” a spokesperson said.
AbbVie has not yet publicly commented on the investigation. Its drug, Lupron Depot, is marketed as a treatment for prostate cancer in men and for endometriosis, fibroids, and central precocious puberty in children.
Both Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have run afoul of the transgender lobby in recent weeks. On February 22, Abbott issued a directive to commissioners with the Texas Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS), which called for employees of DFPS to consider “sex-change” procedures done to minors as child abuse and to investigate cases as such. Abbott ordered agencies to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures.”
There are reports that some Texas doctors have stopped prescribing what transgender propagandists call “gender affirming therapies” after Abbott’s directive.
District Judge Amy Clark Meachum has since issued an injunction against Abbott’s directive. That directive was largely influenced by a February 18 opi,nion of Paxton’s which stated that “sex-change” procedures initiated by parents could reasonably be considered child abuse under Texas law.
“When considering questions of child abuse, a court would likely consider the fundamental right to procreation, issues of physical and emotional harm associated with these procedures and treatments, consent laws in Texas and throughout the country, and existing child abuse standards,” Paxton wrote.
Indeed, for parents to sanction irreversible “gender reassignment” treatments on minors should be considered textbook abuse. While in California, state and county officials are adhering strictly to the transgender ideology to the point of possibly driving one teenager to suicide, officials in Texas are fighting back against such insanity.
