The assets of The Apothecary Shoppe, a Tulsa, Oklahoma com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy that pro­vid­ed lethal injec­tion drugs to Missouri, have been auc­tioned off after the com­pa­ny default­ed on its loans, and is being sold after admit­ting to near­ly two thou­sand vio­la­tions of phar­ma­cy reg­u­la­tions, accord­ing to a report by BuzzFeed News. Inspectors from the fed­er­al Food and Drug Administration and the Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy found that the drug com­pounder had com­mit­ted sig­nif­i­cant” vio­la­tions of phar­ma­cy reg­u­la­tions, includ­ing engag­ing in ques­tion­able poten­cy, dis­in­fect­ing, and ster­il­iza­tion prac­tices. State inves­ti­ga­tors wit­nessed improp­er refrig­er­a­tion, stor­age, and ster­il­iza­tion prac­tices at the phar­ma­cy and caught the com­pa­ny pro­duc­ing drugs with­out legit­i­mate med­ical need, improp­er­ly expand­ing drug expi­ra­tion dates, and oper­at­ing dur­ing peri­ods in which its lab was not certified.

In 2013 and 2014, the phar­ma­cy pre­pared exe­cu­tion drugs for at least three Missouri exe­cu­tions, receiv­ing cash pay­ments from the Department of Corrections. In chal­lenges to Missouri’s lethal injec­tion prac­tices, death-row pris­on­ers – ham­pered by state exe­cu­tion secre­cy pro­vi­sions – argued in court that Compounding-phar­ma­cy prod­ucts do not meet the require­ments for iden­ti­ty, puri­ty, poten­cy, effi­ca­cy, and safe­ty that phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals pro­duced under FDA reg­u­la­tion must meet.” Among the pos­si­bil­i­ties they list­ed, were that the drug may not be ster­ile, may be less potent than it needs to be, or may be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed. Missouri respond­ed in its court fil­ings that the con­demned pris­on­ers’ con­cerns were spec­u­la­tive and that the inmates did not make a plau­si­ble claim that Missouri’s exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dure is sure or very like­ly to cause seri­ous ill­ness or need­less suf­fer­ing and give rise to suf­fi­cient­ly immi­nent dan­gers.” The prob­lems found at The Apothecary Shoppe con­firmed the pris­on­ers’ concerns. 

The com­pa­ny admit­ted to com­mit­ting 1,892 vio­la­tions of phar­ma­cy reg­u­la­tions. State reg­u­la­tors had demand­ed that the phar­ma­cy recall its prod­ucts and cease com­pound­ing new drugs until it com­plied with reg­u­la­tions. The phar­ma­cy was fined $50,000, and the licens­es of The Apothecary Shoppe and its head phar­ma­cist were placed on five years’ probation.

Citation Guide
Sources

Chris McDaniel, Pharmacy That Mixed Executions Drugs Is Being Sold After Admitting Numerous Violations,” BuzzFeed News, April 212016.

See Lethal Injection.