Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday sued Pfizer alleging the drugmaker made “false, misleading and deceptive claims” about its COVID-19 vaccine and tried to intimidate and censor critics who questioned those claims or cited facts that countered them.

According to the lawsuit, Pfizer’s marketing claims about the efficacy, duration of protection and ability of its COVID-19 vaccine to prevent transmission violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The lawsuit also alleges Pfizer cited misleading statistics, concealed negative data and made unsupported statements about efficacy against variants like Delta.

“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,” Paxton said in a press release. “The facts are clear. Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines.”

When the failure of its product became apparent, “Pfizer then pivoted to silencing truth-tellers.”