Misrepresentation of COVID vaccine efficacy: Texas Attorney General sues Pfizer

Pfizer said more than 1.5 billion of people have received its vaccine. The drugmaker has reported more than $74 billion of revenue in 2021 and 2022 related to COVID-19 immunizations.

In a statement, Pfizer said its representations about its vaccine have been "accurate and science-based," and that it believed Paxton's lawsuit had no merit.

Pfizer also said its vaccine has "demonstrated a favorable safety profile in all age groups, and helped protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death."

Infectious disease experts have said relative risk reduction is a more meaningful way to judge a vaccine's efficacy than absolute risk reduction. Relative risk shows how well a vaccine protects recipients relative to a study's control group.

Paxton, a Republican, has criticized Biden administration efforts to fight the pandemic.

Earlier this year, he began probing whether Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson misrepresented their vaccines' efficacy, to examine the "scientific and ethical basis" for public health decisions addressing COVID-19.

"Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines," Paxton said in a statement. "We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies."

The lawsuit is Paxton's second against Pfizer in November.

In a case unsealed on Nov. 21, Paxton accused Pfizer and a supplier of manipulating quality control tests, resulting in the distribution of ineffective drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.

The status of the probe into Moderna and Johnson & Johnson was not immediately clear. Paxton's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.