Raymond Bonner posts, "The Lethal-Drug Maker That's Helping End Lethal Injections," at the Atlantic.
In a major victory for opponents of capital punishment, the only company still supplying a drug used in executions in the United States has said that it will take steps to stop states from using it for that purpose. And the Danish Government has issued a similar call in a letter to governors of death penalty states.
Reversing its previous position, the company, Lundbeck, based in Denmark, will send letters to American prison authorities stating that it is not safe to use the drug pentobarbital for lethal injections, according to a report in the Financial Times that I confirmed by email with the company. Lundbeck will also take measures to control the distribution of its drug in the future so that it will not be used in executions, a representative of the company told me by email. The drug, whose trade name is Nembutal, is also used as a treatment for epilepsy."This is an important step," Maya Foa, a researcher at Reprieve, the human rights organization that has led a campaign to block foreign companies from supplying lethal injection drugs to the United States, told me. She was quick to add, however, "This is not the end of the story." Lundbeck does not sell directly to end-users, but distributes through three American wholesalers. It remains to be seen what action Lundbeck will take to stop its wholesalers from selling the drug to death penalty states, says Foa, who told me that she met with the Lundbeck CEO last week. "That will be the measure of their commitment."
In a related development, the government of Denmark has called on American states not to use Lundbeck's pentobarbital in executions. The letter, which was sent to eight states in April but has not previously been made public, was made available to the Atlantic today by Reprieve. "The Government of Denmark -- and the European Union -- is working actively to restrict the use of capital punishment worldwide with a view to its universal abolition," the Danish Ambassador in Washington, Peter Taksoe-Jensen, wrote to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "We consider this punishment cruel and inhuman, and this appeal is based strictly on humanitarian grounds."
And:
When death penalty states began looking abroad for the drug, they ran into Reprieve and other anti-death penalty organizations, including Amnesty International. Without sodium thiopental, prison authorities turned to pentobarbital. The only foreign company licensed to sell the drug in the United States was Lundbeck.
Reprieve mounted an unrelenting campaign against the Danish company. Each time another person was executed with Lundbeck's pentobarbital, Reprieve issued a press release. While adamantly declaring that it was opposed to pentobarbital being used in executions, Lundbeck was equally unequivocal that there was nothing it could do to prevent it. The company now appears to have changed its policies. The looming question is what states will do without pentobarbital.
The Wall Street Journal has updated, "Lundbeck Wants To Stop US Prisons Using Epilepsy Drug," by Sten Stovall of Dow Jones Newswires.
Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck A/S (LUN.KO) said Wednesday that it was urgently seeking ways to stop prisons in the U.S. from using one of its epilepsy drugs being used for executions.
The company's Nembutal medicine, designed to treat epileptic seizures, is increasingly being used in prison executions in the U.S. even though it wasn't meant for that purpose.
"We are horrified at this fact and are looking at ways to prevent prisons from getting this drug, including tougher conditions on distribution," Lundbeck spokesman Mads Kronborg told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday.
The drug, acquired when the Danish company acquired U.S.-based firm Ovation in 2009, is of no strategic importance to Lundbeck and represents less than 1% of the Danish drug maker's overall sales.
"At first we considered stopping production of this product but there is a medical need for it and hospitals pleaded with us not to cut off the supply. It is the mother of all dilemmas for us," Kronborg said.
Generically known as pentobarbital, the drug was designed to treat epileptic seizures, and is also sometimes used to euthanize animals. Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio are among the eleven states that have acquired supplies of the drug for use in executions.
And:
Lundbeck Chief Executive Ulf Wiinberg is weighing a number of options to cut off supplies of the drug to prisons, including switching to specialist wholesalers and "end user clauses."
"When we first learned of this misuse of our drug we went public and protested strongly to the relevant prison governors and state politicians," Wiinberg said in an interview Wednesday.
"When it comes to distribution, we are exploring different ways to ensure that the drug is used as intended and there are several options you can consider - we haven't finalized the plan yet but I'm hoping we'll have one fairly soon."
He said the Danish State is also trying to help. Like most European countries, Denmark opposes capital punishment.
Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen in April said she would contact U.S. states through the Danish Embassy in Washington D.C. and asked them not to use Nembutal.
Lundbeck CEO Wiinberg said "Lene Espersen has come out very actively behind the position we have taken and we are in dialogue with them to ensure our point of view is expressed in a political form," Wiinberg said, adding that the company has also spoken with other European politicians.
The U.K., which also opposes capital punishment, began regulating the flow of drugs from Britain to U.S. prison systems late last year, issuing an order forbidding U.K. companies from supplying the anesthetic thiopental sodium for use in U.S. executions. Lethal injection is the sole or primary execution method in the 34 U.S. states that carry out the death penalty.
Jens Faerkel, a counselor at Denmark's Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, Wednesday confirmed that the Danish ambassador in Washington has written to the governors of the states which have switched to pentobarbital.
As the issue concerns individual states, not U.S. federal authorities, the issued letters state "the Danish government respectfully urges you, governor, to exercise all the powers vested in your office to put an end to the abuse of pentobarbital for capital punishment," he said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Danish company restricts drug used in lethal injection." It's written by Rhonda Cook.
Georgia recently replaced the sedative it previously used in the three-drug cocktail with phenobarbital when it lost its European source for sodium thiopental. Consequently, executions in Georgia were put on temporary hold.
Still, the use restriction that the company Lundbeck has imposed will not affect Georgia, according to the Department of Corrections. DOC spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said Wednesday Georgia's sedative supply came from Cardinal Health in Ohio and not from Lundbeck, which produces the similar drug pentobarbital.
CEO Ulf Wiinberg said Lundbeck will impose “end user clauses” designed to prevent the use of Nembutal, the company’s brand name for its drug other states use in executions. He wrote U.S. officials that it is unsafe to use Nembutal in untested ways, including lethal injections.
Seven executions have been scheduled this month in states.
Earlier coverage of Lundbeck's position begins at the link. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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