A phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny that man­u­fac­tures pen­to­bar­bi­tal (dis­trib­uted under the brand name Nembutal) has announced that it will sig­nif­i­cant­ly restrict its dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem to pre­vent the drug’s use in lethal injec­tions in the United States. Lundbeck Inc. announced in a state­ment that it ​“adamant­ly oppos­es the dis­tress­ing mis­use of our prod­uct in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” Lundbeck will review orders before pro­vid­ing clear­ance for ship­ping pen­to­bar­bi­tal and will deny orders from pris­ons locat­ed in states cur­rent­ly car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. Purchasers must also pro­vide a writ­ten agree­ment that they will not redis­trib­ute the drug. Lundbeck’s Chief Executive Ulf Wiinberg added, ​“After much con­sid­er­a­tion, we have deter­mined that a restrict­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem is the most mean­ing­ful means through which we can restrict the mis­use of Nembutal. While the com­pa­ny has nev­er sold the prod­uct direct­ly to pris­ons and there­fore can’t make guar­an­tees, we are con­fi­dent that our new dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­gram will play a sub­stan­tial role in restrict­ing pris­ons’ access to Nembutal for mis­use as part of lethal injec­tion.” Almost all the states with the death penal­ty are cur­rent­ly using or intend­ed to use pen­to­bar­bi­tal in their exe­cu­tions. This deci­sion by Lundbeck may require a major change in the exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols of states and the federal government.

(D. Jolly, ​“Danish Company Blocks Sale of Drug for U.S. Executions,” New York Times, July 1, 2011). See Lethal Injection.

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