Pharmaceutical Companies Reiterate Opposition to Participating in Executions as States Scramble for Execution Drugs

Distribution restric­tions put in place by major phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies in the United States against mis­use of their med­i­cines and export reg­u­la­tions insti­tut­ed by the European Union have made it increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult for states to obtain sup­plies of drugs for use in exe­cu­tions. However, despite these restric­tions, some states have obtained phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal prod­ucts man­u­fac­tured by these com­pa­nies for use in lethal injections. 

The Influence reports that the Commonwealth of Virginia obtained lethal injec­tion drugs pro­duced by the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny Mylan—rocuro­ni­um bro­mide, which induces paral­y­sis, and potas­si­um chlo­ride, which stops the heart — from a large North Carolina based drug whole­saler, Cardinal Health. Mylan wrote to the Virginia pris­ons seek­ing assur­ances that use of its med­i­cines in the future would not be divert­ed to any ​“pur­pose incon­sis­tent with their approved label­ing and applic­a­ble stan­dards of care.” 

Recently, the Associated Press dis­cov­ered that the sup­ply of vecuro­ni­um bro­mide obtained by the Arkansas Department of Correction was pro­duced by a sub­sidiary of Pfizer. Pfizer announced in May 2016 that it opposed the use of its prod­ucts in exe­cu­tions, stat­ing, ​“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.” 

While state secre­cy prac­tices leave it unclear from whom Arkansas obtained the restrict­ed drug, Rachel Hooper, a spokesper­son for Pfizer, said, ​“We have imple­ment­ed a com­pre­hen­sive strat­e­gy and enhanced restrict­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­to­cols for a select group of prod­ucts to help com­bat their unau­tho­rized use for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Pfizer is cur­rent­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing with states to remind them of our policy.” 

As phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have made their drugs more dif­fi­cult for states to use, pris­ons have turned to alter­nate sources. The Alabama Department of Corrections con­tact­ed about 30 com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies in an effort to obtain lethal injec­tion drugs, but all refused. 

Compounding phar­ma­cist Donnie Calhoun said, ​“For me, as a health­care pro­fes­sion­al, I want to help peo­ple live longer. The last thing I want to do is help some­one die.” A Virginia phar­ma­cist who was con­tact­ed by the attor­ney gen­er­al’s office also refused, say­ing, ​“No one will do it.” 

Virginia recent­ly adopt­ed a lethal injec­tion secre­cy statute that would con­ceal the iden­ti­ty of its drug sup­pli­er, join­ing many oth­er death penal­ty states in shield­ing key infor­ma­tion about exe­cu­tions from public scrutiny.