AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday announced he has launched an investigation into two pharmaceutical companies for marketing hormone-blocking drugs for children without, he says, disclosing their possible side effects.

The pharmaceutical companies are Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and AbbVie Inc., and the investigation involves the drugs Supprelin LA and Lupron Depot.

According to Paxton, the drugs are approved to treat Central Precocious Puberty (CPP), which is the early onset of puberty in adolescents.

Paxton says that without the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, the drugs are being used to treat gender dysphoria in children, which the American Psychiatric Association defines as “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.”

It should be noted that not all transgender or gender diverse people experience gender dysphoria.

“The manufacture, sale, prescription, and use of puberty blockers on young teens and minors is dangerous and reckless,” Paxton wrote in a news release. “These drugs were approved for very different purposes and can have detrimental and even irreversible side effects. I will not allow pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of Texas children.” 

The companies are being investigated under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Paxton says he is additionally investigating the promotion of a drug called Vantas, which is approved to treat prostate cancer, for gender dysphoria.

Texas earlier this year passed a law targeting transgender students. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in October signed a bill restricting transgender student-athletes from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity, rather than their gender assigned at birth.