Death Penalty Foes Shut Down Another Execution-Drug Supply Route

An Indian drug company that supplied thiopental sodium to U.S. prisons has decided to halt future sales following objections from death penalty opponents.

Kayem Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd supplied Nebraska prison officials with a large supply of thiopental sodium, an anesthetic typically used to render a condemned inmate unconscious before other lethal drugs, including a paralytic agent, are administered.

The company also supplied the drug to South Dakota, Navneet Verma, the managing director of the Mumbai-based company, told WSJ.

“We appreciate the global concerns about the death penalty and particularly the concerns of the human rights community,” Mr. Verma said. “I decided voluntarily not to sell a single vial of thiopental for use in lethal injections.” (Here’s a statement on Kayem’s website about the decision and here’s a WSJ article.)

The decision could make it even more difficult for U.S. prisons to find the drug, which has been in short supply for about a year. Prison officials in South Dakota and Nebraska were not immediately available for comment.

Hospira Inc., the only U.S. manufacturer of thiopental, decided earlier this year to stop making the drug due to concerns from death-penalty opponents.

Some states, including Texas, have switched from using thiopental to pentobarbital, a sedative often used to euthanize animals.

Source: Nathan Koppel, Law Blog, The Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2011

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