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Texas AG Paxton Seeks to Revive Pfizer Lawsuit
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to revive his lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company Pfizer for “knowingly misrepresenting” COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, after it was dismissed by a federal district judge. He argues that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to issue the dismissal. Oral arguments were heard on Tuesday, with the three-judge panel seemingly agreeing with his contention.
In November 2023, Paxton sued Pfizer in a Lubbock state district court, claiming the company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misrepresenting its vaccine as possessing a 95 percent efficacy rate. This metric is allegedly based on misleading “relative risk reduction” statistics for vaccinated individuals generated by the company’s initial clinical trials.
“Pfizer repeatedly and knowingly misrepresented the effectiveness and safety of their COVID-19 vaccine and pressured Americans to take the shot without full knowledge of the risks,” stated Paxton. “When consumers questioned the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, Pfizer sought to silence them — prioritizing profits over the truth.”
The Pediatricians Who Take in Vaccine-Skeptical Parents Others Won’t
She didn’t have any trouble with her current pediatricians in Fall River. Really, she didn’t. She liked them. They were kind. They were great with her newborn daughter. They had helpful answers to most of her new-mom questions. “My only issue was the vaccines. They push ’em,” she said, rocking her 6-week-old’s carrier. “They’re like, ‘Well, she needs them all by 2 or we can’t keep her as a patient. And I’m like, ‘OK, I understand that, but at the same time, like, why?’ And they’re like, ‘It’s our protocol.’”
That wasn’t a good enough answer for her, and that was why she was here at Middleboro Pediatrics at 4:45 p.m. on a hot summer Thursday, meeting a new doctor named Aaron Bornstein. In a sense, they were auditioning each other.
She was testing his willingness to take her questions and concerns seriously, without judgment or sneering — to “work with her,” as this sort of flexibility is often called in this genre of conversation between someone who represents medical authority and someone else who’s wary of it. He, meanwhile, was probing just how wary of his medical advice she might be if her daughter became his patient.
Possible Side Effect for Men on GLP-1s: Baldness
Those popular weight-loss shots may also be affecting men’s hairlines. A genetic study out of NYU Langone Health suggests that GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound could nudge some men toward permanent male-pattern baldness, not just short-term shedding tied to rapid weight loss, NBC News reports.
Researchers found that men with higher activity in a gene called GLP1R — whose receptors these drugs target — had about a 7% greater chance of baldness if they used GLP-1 medications, per a release.
The study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology doesn’t prove that the medications cause hair loss, and it only looked at men, but it hints that some users may be biologically more vulnerable. Dermatologists say most drug-related shedding of hair resolves within months. For hair-loss prevention, they point to options like low-dose oral minoxidil, platelet-rich plasma, adequate protein, and testing for nutrient deficiencies. Another recent study has similar findings regarding GLP-1 drugs and hair loss.
Vaccine Maker Halts Trial on mRNA Cancer Shot
A vaccine manufacturer has said it is terminating a clinical trial testing an experimental vaccine against cancer. The vaccine, which utilizes messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, is made by BioNTech in partnership with Genentech. The vaccine was being tested in patients with colorectal cancer in a phase 2 clinical trial.
Experts on a board monitoring the trial recommended the trial be halted because there was “a numerical imbalance in overall survival between treatment arms,” BioNTech said in an Aug. 28 statement.
Signs of trial failure became evident in October 2025, but the experts said that at the time the “data were not sufficiently mature to support reliable conclusions regarding efficacy, and that follow-up time was insufficient to evaluate the trial’s primary endpoint,” according to BioNTech, so the trial continued. Continuing the trial further is unlikely to change the outcome, the experts assessed. BioNTech, after consulting with Genentech, agreed to end the trial and discontinue treatment of the patients. It said it has updated regulators.
Weight Loss Supplement Recalled Over Hidden Pesticide, Fluoxetine
The Houston Chronicle reported:
A new weight loss supplement has been recalled because it is tainted with two undeclared ingredients, including one commonly used as a pesticide, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration notification published on Aug. 31.
Ana Salazar Modela Tu Cuerpo Inc. issued the recall of Lipofit Extreme Fat Burner 2.0 following the FDA’s determination that the daytime (AM) tablets contained fluoxetine and the nighttime (PM) tablets had 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), which is used as a pesticide and herbicide, the FDA reported.
Both ingredients were undeclared in the affected product, which has an expiration date of September 2027.
