Some Medical Supply Manufacturers Ban Use of IV Equipment in Lethal Injection Executions

According to a September 14, 2023, arti­cle from The Intercept, four med­ical sup­ply man­u­fac­tur­ers are refus­ing to sell their equip­ment for use in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. This lim­i­ta­tion may fur­ther ham­per the abil­i­ty of states to car­ry out exe­cu­tions, as a mul­ti­tude of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have already placed restric­tions on sell­ing their drugs to depart­ments of cor­rec­tion. Joining these com­pa­nies are Baxter International Inc., B. Braun Medical Inc., Fresenius Kabi, and Johnson & Johnson. Not only do these com­pa­nies pro­duce the drugs need­ed for lethal injec­tion, but they also devel­op and man­u­fac­ture med­ical sup­plies includ­ing catheters, IV bags, and syringes, which are also used in lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols. According to Johnson & Johnson spokesper­son Joshina Kapoor, J&J ​“devel­ops med­ical inno­va­tions to save and enhance lives… We do not con­done the use of our prod­ucts for lethal injec­tions in capital punishment.” 

Fresenius Kabi, a Germany-based com­pa­ny focused on pro­duc­ing IV devices, told reporters they would seize all prod­ucts from any cor­rec­tions depart­ments dis­cov­ered to be using their prod­ucts in lethal injec­tions. B. Braun Medical, which is also Germany-based, ​“pro­hibits its U.S.-based dis­trib­u­tors from sell­ing prod­ucts to pris­ons for exe­cu­tions.” Baxter International, a health care com­pa­ny in the United States, con­firmed that their 2017 state­ment pro­hibit­ing the use of their prod­ucts in lethal injec­tion extends to their med­ical equip­ment, not just the drugs they produce. 

In 2011, Hospira, a phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny now a part of Pfizer, and the sole man­u­fac­tur­er of sodi­um thiopen­tal, a bar­bi­tu­rate used for anes­theti­za­tion in exe­cu­tions, ceased pro­duc­tion of this drug, cit­ing con­cern with its use in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions in the United States. In the same year, the European Union vot­ed to dis­al­low the sell­ing and trans­porta­tion of all drugs used for lethal injec­tions in the United States, includ­ing sodi­um thiopen­tal and pen­to­bar­bi­tal, anoth­er com­mon­ly used bar­bi­tu­rate. This made it dif­fi­cult for many states to pro­cure drugs for exe­cu­tions and because of this dif­fi­cul­ty, many states attempt­ed to pur­chase drugs from oth­er states or make the drugs on their own. In 2013, the Missouri DOC gave an employ­ee $11,000 to trav­el to Oklahoma and pur­chase pen­to­bar­bi­tal, while sev­er­al oth­er states turned to com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies, who attempt to repli­cate the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals used in lethal injection.

Fresenius Kabi has pre­vi­ous­ly chal­lenged state’s mis­use of its prod­ucts, suing Nebraska in 2018 for pur­chas­ing their drugs to use in lethal injec­tion. This pur­chase came after the company’s 2012 warn­ing that mis­use of their drugs could lead to wide­spread gov­ern­men­tal bans on its sales to the United States. Matt Kuhn, spokesper­son for Fresenius Kabi, said that the com­pa­ny is unaware of any states using their prod­ucts in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions and would take the nec­es­sary actions if ever need­ed. Extending their pro­hi­bi­tion of the use of their prod­ucts to include med­ical equip­ment may be hard­er to do, as Lawrence Gostin, direc­tor of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, thinks ​“as a prac­ti­cal mat­ter, it’ll be dif­fi­cult for the com­pa­ny to con­trol who gets access to its products.”