Alan Johnson writes, "Manufacturer tries to block drug's use for executions," for the Columbus Dispatch.
The Danish manufacturer of a drug used in executions in Ohio and other states is taking new hard-line measures to block its use for lethal injection.
Lundbeck Inc., which has U.S. headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., said this week that it will work through "specialist wholesalers" and include "end-user clause" restrictions in selling pentobarbital, also known by the brand name Nembutal.
"Obviously, we would like to do the right thing," Ulf Wiinberg, the company's chief executive, told the Financial Times of London.
Carlo LoParo, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the state agency has received no new communications from Lundbeck since February, when the company urged U.S. prisons to stop using the drug for executions.
Ohio has no plans to switch drugs, LoParo said. Ohio is the only state to use pentobarbital, a fast-acting anesthetic used to induce comas and in treating epilepsy, as the single drug for executions. Other states use it in a three-drug combination.
The situation echoes what happened last year when Hospira Inc., the sole U.S. manufacturer of the drug sodium thiopental, stopped producing it, partially in response to complaints about its use to execute U.S. prisoners. Like Lundbeck, the company first sent letters to U.S. prison officials; they were generally ignored.
Ohio switched to pentobarbital in February and has used it to execute three inmates, most recently Daniel Lee Bedford on May 17. Five more executions are scheduled this year.
Lundbeck sent Ohio's prison officials a letter this year indicating it was "adamantly opposed" to the use of its product for capital punishment. "Use of our products to end lives contradicts everything we're in business to do," a spokeswoman said.
Earlier coverage of Lundbeck's recent announcement begins at the link.
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