Lundbeck Inc., a Danish phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny that is the sole man­u­fac­tur­er of injectable pen­to­bar­bi­tal used in the U.S., recent­ly announced that it will impose tougher con­di­tions on dis­trib­u­tors in an effort to pre­vent the drug’s use in exe­cu­tions. Lundbeck’s Chief Executive, Ulf Wiinberg, said his com­pa­ny will be switch­ing to the use of spe­cial­ist whole­salers and impos­ing ​“end user claus­es” designed to stop pen­to­bar­bi­tal from being sold for use in exe­cu­tions. Wiinberg will also be writ­ing to state offi­cials warn­ing that it is not safe to use the drug in untest­ed ways, includ­ing in lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols. Wiinberg said, ​“We are will­ing to try to stop Nembutal’s (pen­to­bar­bi­tal) mis­use even if we can’t guar­an­tee that it will nec­es­sar­i­ly work. Obviously we would like to do the right thing.” Early this year, depart­ments of cor­rec­tions in sev­er­al states switched to using pen­to­bar­bi­tal as part of a 3‑drup pro­to­col after anoth­er drug became unavail­able. About a dozen inmates have been exe­cut­ed in the U.S. using this new drug in 2011, includ­ing three in Ohio, which uses a sin­gle lethal-dose of pen­to­bar­bi­tal in its exe­cu­tions. Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arizona have used pen­to­bar­bi­tal as the first drug in a three-drug pro­to­col this year.

(A. Jack, ​“Danes try to block use of drug in exe­cu­tions,” Financial Times, June 7, 2011). See Lethal Injection and Executions.

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