Pentobarbital is used to euthanise animals, but can also be used in the execution of human beings. Picture: 123RF/digicomphoto
So co-founder Michael Pruett was surprised to learn from a Reuters reporter that his firm had been testing drugs that the justice department planned to use in lethal injections of condemned prisoners. The vials containing 50ml of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, began arriving at his firm for testing on April 9 2019, according to laboratory records included in justice department filings.
All three firms told Reuters the justice department did not hire them directly, saying they were contracted by a compounding pharmacy, which they declined to identify. The justice department has confirmed in court filings that it has hired one such pharmacy to make the execution drugs. Department spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle declined to name any of the companies in its supply chain or to answer detailed questions from Reuters about its efforts to secure lethal drugs.
The department first announced in July 2019 that it would resume executions. But its work in lining up a lethal drug supply had started more than two years earlier, a timeline that has not been previously reported. In May 2017, the department — anticipating legal challenges — hired an Arizona litigation consulting firm, Elite Medical Experts, according to contracting records in the government’s procurement database.
Only four drug companies have US FDA approval to make a pentobarbital drug for human use: Akorn, which sells it under the trade name Nembutal, and three generic manufacturers: Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Custopharm, and Renaissance Pharma. But all four makers have anti-capital punishment policies and refuse to sell the drug to US prisons and the justice department.
After learning from Reuters that he was testing execution drugs, Pruett declined to comment — citing the advice of his attorney — on whether he would continue to run the commissioned tests on the pentobarbital samples.Most capital crimes in America are prosecuted by states. The federal government has only executed three people since 1963, all between 2001 and 2003. Currently, 62 people are on death row for federal crimes.
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