Danes restrict use of death penalty drug

By GREG BLUESTEIN - Associated Press - Associated Press Friday, July 1, 2024

See today's top life science stories and headlines - Sign up now!

newsvine diigo google
slashdot
Share
Loading...

A Danish pharmaceutical company is changing its distribution system to stop one of its drugs from being used in U.S. executions, adding a significant obstacle for states that have scrambled recently to find a suitable lethal injection drug.

Lundbeck Inc. chief executive Ulf Wiinberg said Friday that his company will demand that U.S. distributors sign an agreement stating they will not make pentobarbital — a sedative with a number of uses — available for prisons using it for lethal injections. A growing number of death penalty states are using the sedative since the sole U.S. manufacturer of another key execution drug announced this year that it would not resume production of it.

Wiinberg said that his company would take action against any distributor who breaks the agreement.

"Lundbeck will have to approve each order and everyone buying the product must sign a paper stating they will not sell it on to prisons," Wiinberg said, saying that the move should bar U.S. prisons from buying the drug indirectly through other suppliers.

"We are confident that our new distribution program will play a substantial role in restricting prisons' access," he said.

Pentobarbital, which is produced in Lundbeck's plant in Kansas, is also used to treat seizures and destroy animals. But it has become a key element in U.S. executions as supplies dwindle of sodium thiopental, which most of the nation's 34 death penalty states once used as part of a three-drug combination.

Lundbeck began seeking a way to restrict prisons from using pentobarbital almost as soon as they began adopting it. At first, the company complained its product was being misused, and wrote in letters to prison authorities and politicians that using the drug to carry out the death penalty "falls outside its approved indications." But the letters and other efforts didn't have much effect.

Reprieve, the London-based human rights group that sought to ban the use of pentobarbital, celebrated Friday's announcement. Reprieve investigator Maya Foa said the move should effectively cut prisons off from buying more pentobarbital.

"There aren't legitimate channels for prisons to access the drugs," she said.

Still, the move won't immediately choke off the supply. Several death penalty states have already purchased stockpiles of pentobarbital, and it's unclear whether suppliers who already have the drug will be restricted from selling more of it. And vendors could still try to sell the chemical to prisons through backchannels, although Foa said they could then face legal action.

Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical distributors, is working with Lundbeck to help implement the new strategy, spokeswoman Tara Schumacher said Friday.

Cardinal Health has provided the drug to Georgia and Oregon's corrections departments.

Carol Wright, a veteran federal public defender in Columbus, Ohio, welcomed Lundbeck's announcement as especially important in Ohio, which uses a single dose of pentobarbital in executions.

"Lundbeck's bold and responsible move reflects a growing worldwide intolerance for executions by any means," Wright said.

Ohio prisons spokesman Carlo LoParo did not have an immediate comment Friday when told of Lundbeck's announcement. The state has enough of the drug for the next scheduled execution on July 19, he said.

Texas, with the country's busiest death chamber, has enough of the drug for the eight executions it has scheduled through September, said spokesman Jason Clark.

Oklahoma, the first state to switch to pentobarbital, has no executions scheduled and no supply of the drug, said prisons spokesman Jerry Massie.

"It's too early for us to make any assessment of what kind of issues this is going to create," he said.

Pentobarbital has been used in 15 executions in the U.S., including two in which observers noted unusual movements.

Eddie Duval Powell raised his head with a confused look on his faced and glanced around Alabama's death chamber after he was injected with the drug on June 16. And Roy Willard Blankenship jerked his head several times and appeared to gasp for air after Georgia officials used the drug to execute him.

Brian Kammer, Blankenship's defense attorney, unsuccessfully urged state and federal courts to halt the execution on grounds that pentobarbital is an unreliable drug for executions, and that it would cause his client to needlessly suffer. He said Friday that the move should make it "close to impossible" for prisons to get the drug, but said he expected corrections departments to seek out alternative supplies.

"For now, I think this means that once corrections agencies run out of their current supplies of pentobarbital, there will be a drug supply crisis in terms of implementing capital punishment," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Join the Discussion
Rate Article: Average 0 out of 5
register or log in to comment on this article!

0 Comments

Add Comment

Text Only 2000 character limit

Page 1 of 1

Research Exchange

Bringing the Cell Image into Focus

Nov 2 2010

Improvements in transmission electron microscope (TEM) technology increase the power of this imaging tool for the study of cell biology.

Finding a Cure for Spinal Cord Injury with On-Demand LIMS

Oct 25 2010

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis finds an on-demand laboratory information management system (LIMS) helps to accelerate discovery in its HCS projects.

Saving Cells: Image Processing for Improved Viability, Part II: Iterative Deconvolution

Oct 25 2010

3D light microscopy and deconvolution provide a means to investigate 3D structure, providing near-confocal quality images without the temporal requirements or potentially damaging phototoxicity associated with other 3D imaging technologies. This article is Part II in a series regarding viability, resolution improvement, and measurement in fluorescence imaging. Part I focused on spectral unmixing.

Saving Cells: Image Processing for Improved Viability

Sep 22 2010

This article is Part I of a two-part series regarding viability, resolution improvement, and measurement in fluorescence imaging. Part II will focus on deconvolution.

Evaluation of a New Nano-Type UV-Vis Spectrophotometer

Mar 3

Analysis of one- to four-microliter size samples for nucleic acids has become routine in many life science laboratories. However, until now, available instruments require considerable manipulation of the instrument and sample; some require manually recording the data. The user must typically lower and raise the arm manually, then wipe the sample manually from the target after each analysis. And fiberoptics used in some of these instruments are subject to deterioration.

Production of Recombinant Proteins and Monoclonal Antibodies in Hollow Fiber Bioreactors

Jan 25

While well-understood, robust and convenient, classical batch-style 2-D culture on non-porous supports or 3-D suspension culture in other devices are really not very biologically relevant models. Cell culture conditions can affect the quality of the antibody or protein produced.

Selecting Robots for Use in Drug Discovery and Testing

Dec 6 2010

Drug discovery and testing, with their need for speed, repeatability and verification, are ideally suited to benefit from robot automation. It is therefore not surprising that robots have been at the forefront of automation developments in both these areas.

HP Scalable Network Storage Systems for Life Sciences

Sep 13 2010

Life sciences research today is advancing exponentially, each step bringing us closer to the realization of truly personalized medicine–preventive care and treatments designed specifically for each individual. In the near future, PCPGM healthcare researchers expect to be able to use predictive genetic testing to create custom treatment plans for individuals and deliver dramatic improvements over today’s one-size-fits-all approach. But research capabilities are only part of the equation; current storage and operating capacities must also evolve to accommodate ever-expanding amounts of data before the goal of personalized medicine can be realized.

Using the Tecan Genesis Workstation to Automate a Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) Immunoassay

Mar 11 2010

The poster describe the process involved in automating a Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) immunoassay developed to measure relative concentrations of serum antibodies against Tetanus (TT), Sperm Whale Myoglobin (SWM) and Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) in KLH-immunized volunteers.

Ensuring Quality in Assays Performed with Automated Liquid Handlers

Feb 2 2010

The focus of this presentation is to highlight the need of ensuring quality in important assays performed with automated liquid handlers. Nearly all assays performed within a laboratory are volume-dependent. In turn, all concentrations of biological and chemical components in these assays, as well as the associated dilution protocols, are volume-dependent. Because analyte concentration is volume-dependent, an assay’s results might be falsely interpreted if liquid handler variability and inaccuracies are unknown or if the system(s) go unchecked for a long period.

Inkjet System for Protein Crystallography

Feb 1 2010

X-ray crystallography is used routinely by scientists to obtain the three dimensional structure of a biological molecule of interest.Such information can be used to determine how a pharmaceutical interacts with a protein target and what changes might improve functionality. However, the crystallization of macromolecules still remains a serious hindrance in structural determination despite impressive advances in screening methods and technologies.

Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity in a Drosophila Memory Mutant

Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity in a Drosophila Memory Mutant

Nov 9 2009

Action selection is modulated by external stimuli either directly or via memory retrieval. In a constantly changing environment, animals have evolved attention-like processes to effectively filter the incoming sensory stream. These attention-like processes, in turn, are modulated by memory. The neurobiological nature of how attention, action selection and memory are inter-connected is unknown. We describe here new phenotypes of the memory mutant radish in the fruit fly Drosophila.

Estrogen signaling and neuroprotection in cerebral ischemia.

1 hour ago

17β-Estradiol (E2) is an important hormone signal that regulates multiple tissues and functions in the body. This review focuses on the neuroprotective actions of E2 in the brain against cerebral ischemia and the potential underlying mechanisms. A particular...

A Bold View Of The Lactating Brain: fMRI Studies Of Suckling in Awake Dams.

1 hour ago

Functional MRI has been used to investigate the responsiveness of the maternal rat brain to pup-suckling under various experimental paradigms. Our research employing the lactating rat model has explored the cortical sensory processing of pup stimuli and the...

Oestradiol regulates β-catenin-mediated transcription in neurones.

1 hour ago

Oestradiol acts in the brain by multiple mechanisms, including regulation of transcriptional activity through classical oestrogen receptors, α and β, and by the activation of membrane/cytoplasm-initiated signalling cascades. In neuroblastoma cells, primary...

Isolation rates of Brucella melitensis in an endemic area and implications for laboratory safety.

2 hours ago

A retrospective study was conducted to assess the potential threat posed by processing blood cultures to clinical microbiology laboratory personnel working in an area endemic for Brucella melitensis in southern Israel. The computerized laboratory records for the...

Prokariotic Cell Collection in Denmark

Nov 6 2009

I would like to know about a prokariotic cell collection in Denmark. Is there a cell bank in this country? I need a Lactobacillus strain for a fermentation assay and this information about the bank is very helpful for me.

Request for Entries

Oct 16 2009

Ask the Experts is your chance to get the answers to questions on applications, materials, methods, processes, and technologies. Email you question to bst_web@advantagemedia.com, and the editors of Bioscience Technology will find an appropriate expert to answer it. Watch this space in the future to see the questions your colleagues are posting.

STAY INFORMED: SUBSCRIBE TO

Magazine and E-mail Newsletters

Loading...
E-mail:   
Loading...

Free Life Science Industry
Subscriptions

Magazine

wireless week

Newsletters

newsletters

Sign up now



MULTIMEDIA

Video:

Viewing SureFocus Slides

Jun 11 2010

A demonstration of SureFocus Microscope Slides in the review of AFB Smears. SureFocus Slides are a patent-pending breakthrough in tuberculosis detection, as their fluorescent staining circle remains visible during review, Fluorescence Microscopy.

Podcasts:

Allen Institute for Brain Research

Allen Institute for Brain Research

Oct 14 2009

Discussed in this interview are both the mouse brain project and the human cortex project with an emphasis on the importance of these projects to neuroscience research.

Top Stories and Headlines
EVERY DAY!

FREE Email Newsletter

Information: