Danes try to block use of drug in executions

A Danish pharmaceutical company is to impose tough conditions on distributors of its epilepsy medicine in an effort to prevent it being used to kill US prisoners .

Ulf Wiinberg, chief executive of Lundbeck, said his company would be switching to the use of specialist wholesalers and imposing “end user clauses” designed to stop its drug Nembutal being sold for use in executions.

Separately, he will be writing to US prison governors and prisoners warning that it is not safe to use Nembutal, known generically as pentobarbital, in untested ways – including lethal injections.

His action marks a victory for human rights groups which have led an intensifying transatlantic campaign to cut off supplies of medicines for use in executions.

It follows successful efforts to restrict supplies of sodium thiopental, one of three drugs previously used in a standard “cocktail” to kill US prisoners given the death sentence.

Prisons switched to Nembutal instead in more than a dozen executions since late last year. “We are willing to try to stop Nembutal’s misuse even if we can’t guarantee that it will necessarily work,” said Mr Wiinberg.

“Obviously we would like to do the right thing.”

Maya Foa, a researcher at Reprieve, a UK human rights group leading the campaign, said: “This is an extremely important development.

“Lundbeck is finally acknowledging it needs to take responsibility for the distribution of Nembutal, just as it does for other ‘high-risk’ drugs, to prevent its use in executions.

“Its actions could fundamentally alter the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the capital punishment system in the USA.”

However, she stressed the need for Lundbeck to implement its new measures urgently, with seven executions scheduled in US prisons using the drug this month alone.

Hospira had previously supplied sodium thiopental as part of a cocktail of drugs given in the death penalty but abandoned production after Italy blocked manufacture in a local factory.

Vince Cable, the UK business secretary, also banned exports from British suppliers in November.

That led US penitentiaries to switch to Nembutal, which is prescribed for severe epilepsy and as a veterinary anaesthetic, while also used unofficially as a recreational drug and for assisted suicides.

Lundbeck had publicly expressed its criticism of the use Nembutal on Death Row, but – with the US Food & Drug Administration barred by the Supreme Court from pronouncing on the use of medicines in the death penalty – it argued it was impossible to prevent diversion.

It initially considered withdrawing the drug, which generates only modest sales, but was advised that it remained an important treatment not produced by others.

But its failure to make public the advice restricting the room for manoeuvre sparked criticism over a lack of transparency, and divestment by some shareholders claiming the company had not adequately explained its reasons. Following campaigning efforts and media coverage, it has now agreed to re-examine distribution arrangements.

Asked whether US prisons would switch to less well regulated suppliers of drugs if Lundbeck’s efforts were effective, Ms Foa said “Departments of corrections have learnt [to their chagrin], that they can’t really get away with using underhand methods to procure drugs.”

“The Drug Enforcement Agency has been quite good about seizing the imported drugs [on technicalities regarding the import procedure] and they’d have a hard time getting past the lawyers if they tried to use drugs from a facility that’s not FDA-approved.”