Food and Drug Administration

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed suit against Gerber Products Company and parent Nestlé USA, alleging the companies deceived parents by marketing baby food as safe and rigorously tested while internal testing allegedly found elevated levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury. The complaint, filed in Collin County under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, cites Gerber's own 2017-2019 data claiming 67 batches of rice flour contained more than nine times the federal arsenic limit for bottled water, with carrots and sweet potatoes also exceeding limits for cadmium and lead.

Paxton's office says Gerber issued no recall or warning and kept marketing claims of rigorous quality checks despite the findings, criticizing the company's use of a QR code rather than clear labeling to disclose results. Gerber disputes the allegations, saying its products meet FDA heavy-metal standards and undergo testing for more than 500 toxins. Paxton, a Trump-backed Senate candidate, filed the suit weeks before facing Democrat James Talarico in the midterm election.

Sen. Bill Cassidy questioned Dr. Heidi Overton, President Trump's nominee to lead the FDA, during a Senate HELP Committee hearing Thursday, seeking assurances she would defend vaccine science against political pressure. Overton, a White House domestic policy aide, contradicted Trump's claim that the MMR vaccine could be "quite lethal," calling the shot "our best tool" against the current measles surge.

However, Overton declined to directly criticize several of Trump's other health-related statements, including claims linking Tylenol to autism, assertions about U.S. drug pricing, and comments equating birth control with abortion. She also would not say whether health care is a human right. Cassidy, a physician and vaccine researcher before entering politics, pressed her to commit to "radical honesty" and resisting ideological interference in FDA product approvals. Sen. Maggie Hassan pushed further, noting Overton avoided saying the president was simply wrong on vaccine safety. The committee will vote at a later hearing on whether to advance Overton's nomination to the full Senate.

Montana has enacted the nation's most expansive "right-to-try" law, letting any resident—not just terminally ill patients—access experimental drugs that have only completed Phase I trials showing basic safety, without proven effectiveness. This breaks sharply from federal right-to-try rules, including those signed during Trump's first term, which require patients to have exhausted approved treatments.

Biotech startups see Montana as a workaround to the FDA's costly approval process. Infinita, a company tied to a deregulated zone in Honduras and led by CEO Niklas Anzinger, runs the only review board approving treatments so far, charging companies a application fee; it approved its first treatment last month. Critics, including patient advocates, warn of conflicts of interest and unproven claims reaching vulnerable patients. The program's future depends on whether the FDA intervenes—an open question, especially with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has touted his own use of unapproved treatments, expressing support for expanded access. FDA officials met with industry and patient groups in June but gave no commitment on enforcement.

Arguments began Wednesday in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a Louisiana lawsuit seeking to roll back a Biden-era FDA rule that allows mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions, to be prescribed via telehealth and sent by mail. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed the suit last October, arguing the telehealth policy—made permanent in 2023 after being loosened during the pandemic—violates state law, which has banned abortion since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. A Louisiana woman, Rosalie Markezich, joined as a plaintiff, alleging she was given mifepristone by her boyfriend after it was mailed by a California doctor; related arrest warrants against out-of-state prescribers in California and New York were not honored by those states.

The Fifth Circuit previously froze the FDA rule for Louisiana before the Supreme Court restored telehealth access pending further litigation. A ruling could reshape nationwide mail-order abortion access and may eventually reach the Supreme Court. Telehealth accounted for about 29% of U.S. abortions last year.

President Trump's move to boost foreign beef imports, including a temporary suspension of tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of imported lean beef trimmings through around Thanksgiving, aimed at lowering consumer prices, is drawing sharp criticism from Florida's cattle industry and Republican officials ahead of the 2026 midterms. Rep. Kat Cammack, the only Florida Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, warned the policy risks disengaging ranchers and farmers even if it doesn't push them to vote Democrat.

Prices at Florida's Okeechobee Livestock Market have reportedly dropped roughly $500 per head, about a 30 percent decline, hitting during September, the peak season for bringing calves to market. Industry leaders, including the Florida Cattlemen's Association and the Florida Association of Livestock Markets, say the timing has disrupted long-term planning. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson also raised concerns about food safety, citing reduced FDA inspections of foreign facilities. The episode highlights tension between affordability goals and protecting domestic agriculture, with potential political fallout for Republicans in cattle-producing states.