Lundbeck drugs allow first South Carolina execution for 2 years

Drugs supplied by pharmaceutical company Lundbeck will today [Friday, May 6, 2011] allow the first execution in South Carolina in two years to go ahead.

Jeffrey Motts is set to be the first prisoner executed in the state using a new three-drug ‘cocktail’, adopted as a result of shortages in the US of a key anaesthetic previously used in the process.

A barbiturate, pentobarbital, will for the first time be used by South Carolina’s authorities as the initial step in the cocktail. This is an untested process which has raised concerns - not least as it is explicitly outlawed by vets for the euthanasia of animals.

Denmark-headquartered Lundbeck is increasingly becoming the major player in the American execution drugs market as it is the sole supplier of pentobarbital to the USA.

Death rows in the US have struggled to get hold of the previously-used drug, sodium thiopental, ever since domestic production ceased and action by Governments and companies around the world opposed to the death penalty cut off many lines of supply. South Carolina had obtained a stockpile of sodium thiopental from a British supplier operating out of the back of a driving school in Acton – however, this was seized towards the end of April by the US Drugs Enforcement Administration (DEA). As a result, they have now turned to Lundbeck’s pentobarbital.

Despite this, and the wider issue of the use of their products in executions, Lundbeck have refused to explain why they will not take action to prevent this from happening. Today’s execution is expected to bring the total number of people executed in the US using Lundbeck’s drugs to seven.

Reprieve Investigator Maya Foa said: “Lundbeck say they’re committed to improving life, yet this week alone their drugs have been used for two deaths. Something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Source: Reprieve, May 6, 2011

Related article: "Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck votes to continue supplying pentobarbital for lethal injections", Reprieve, March 25, 2011

Contact Lundbeck, send an email (contact@lundbeck.com)

Help spread this important message:

Lundbeck: YES! OUR DRUG KILLS

Already 6 human beings executed with Lundbeck's Pentobarbital. Demand Lundbeck Withdraw Execution Drug:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/demand-lundbeck-withdraw-execution-drug/

Please sign and tell Danish company to stop helping the death penalty business in the USA! This petition is international and open to all! Please select your country, sign and share widely!

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