Sole Producer of Lethal Injection Drug Quits

Hospira's decision could cause delays for states
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2011 2:45 PM CST
Sole Producer of Lethal Injection Drug Quits
This November 2005 file photo shows the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Corrections Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.   (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)

The capital punishment system faces a serious obstacle: the only US producer of an anesthetic used in lethal injection has decided to stop making it, the Wall Street Journal reports. Thiopental sodium is made exclusively by Hospira, an Illinois company. It had already suspended production in 2009 because of manufacturing problems but planned to resume at a plant in Italy. Those plans fell through when the Italian government pressured the company to ensure that its product was not used in executions.

A substitute exists—pentobarbitol, a drug used to euthanize animals—but any change will have to be approved by state courts. In the meantime, many states are already out of thiopental, meaning that executions will likely have to be put on hold until the chemical quandary can be sorted out.
(More drug cocktail stories.)

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