After hav­ing ​“solicit­ed thor­ough­ly for ven­dors,” the Nevada Department of Corrections announced that no phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny has offered to sell the state drugs for use in exe­cu­tions. James Dzurenda, direc­tor of the Nevada Department of Corrections issued a state­ment on October 7 say­ing that the Department had sent 247 requests for pro­pos­als to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sup­pli­ers on September 2 and, in response, had received no bids to sup­ply the state with lethal injec­tion drugs. In August, Dzurenda informed the state Board of Prison Commissioners that one of the two drugs the state used in exe­cu­tions — mida­zo­lam and hydro­mor­phone — had expired and that Pfizer, Inc., which pro­duces both of the drugs, refused to pro­vide the state with new sup­plies. Pfizer announced restric­tions on the dis­tri­b­u­tion of its med­i­cines in May in an effort to pre­vent states from using them in exe­cu­tions. At the time, the com­pa­ny said, ​“Pfizer makes its prod­ucts to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve. Consistent with these val­ues, Pfizer strong­ly objects to the use of its prod­ucts as lethal injec­tions for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” Having failed to iden­ti­fy a drug sup­pli­er, Dzurenda said the Department ​“will work close­ly with the attor­ney gen­er­al, the gov­er­nor and the Legislature to exam­ine our options and decide the best course of action mov­ing for­ward.” The state leg­is­la­ture would have to approve any change to an alter­na­tive method of exe­cu­tion. The state’s $858,000 new exe­cu­tion cham­ber is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed by November 1, but no exe­cu­tions are immi­nent, and none could be car­ried out with­out a sup­ply of drugs. Nevada’s last exe­cu­tion was in April 2006. Officials said the space will be used for stor­age and attor­ney-client meet­ings if no exe­cu­tions are scheduled.

(S. Chereb, ​“Nevada receives no bids from com­pa­nies to sup­ply lethal-injec­tion drugs,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 7, 2016.) See Lethal Injection.

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