In the face of growing opposition to the death penalty both inside and outside this country, states have increasingly found it tougher to find the drugs needed for lethal injections. Well, Pfizer just made it even more difficult. The pharmaceutical giant introduced new supply chain controls that will effectively bar the use of its products in executions.
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In a policy approved in March and made public on Friday afternoon, Pfizer will restrict the sale of seven chemicals commonly used in lethal injection cocktails to “a select group of wholesalers, distributors, and direct purchasers” who must certify that these products will not be used in lethal injections. Additionally, any government purchasers must certify that if they buy these products, they will only be used for “medically prescribed patient care” and will not be distributed to third parties.
While Pfizer has never supported the use of its products for capital punishment, it will now monitor its supply chain all the way to the end user in order to ensure that they are not used for executions. Thousands of drug makers around the world have adopted similar measures in the face of overwhelming international consensus that the death penalty is inherently inhumane. Europe, for instance, has imposed strict controls on the export of drugs used in lethal injection cocktails.
However, Pfizer’s announcement has the potential to be a game-changer. It was the last FDA-approved manufacturer of execution drugs, and as such the last remaining open-market source for these drugs. With this announcement, states still in the execution business will find it a lot tougher to get these drugs. A number of states have put executions on hold because their supplies have either run out or expired. Others have resorted to getting the drugs via straw purchases or non-approved manufacturers, or turned to loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.
Just five years ago, Hospira, the only American maker of sodium thiopental–one of the staples in the traditional lethal injection cocktail–opted to stop making it rather than accept Italian demands that it adopt supply-chain restrictions almost identical to the ones Pfizer announced on Friday. Hospira had shuttered its sodium thiopental plant in North Carolina due to technical problems, and wanted to resume production in Italy. However, it claimed that there was no way it could prevent sodium thiopental from being used in executions. Ironically, Hospira is now owned by Pfizer.
In recent years, lawyers for death-row inmates have pushed for delays in executions because states haven’t been willing to disclose where they get the drugs. They have argued that if we can’t know if the drugs are potent enough or will cause their clients to suffer, it would raise Eighth Amendment issues. States have been loath to disclose this information, saying that it could expose the manufacturers to violent reprisals from death penalty opponents.
However, one death penalty opponent thinks there’s another factor at play. Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center pointed out that since states are buying these drugs in secret, they want to “keep manufacturers in the dark” that their products are being used for executions against their express objections. If that’s the case, it won’t be long before we know if compounding pharmacies are deceiving manufacturers. After all, it will be a lot tougher for them to hide any distribution to corrections departments now that every FDA-approved manufacturer has put a microscope on its supply chain.
