Dive Brief:
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Pfizer announced Friday it would block the use of its drugs in legal injections, ending the last open-market source for the drugs, The New York Times reported.
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With the announcement, Pfizer joined more than 20 American and European drug companies with such restrictions.
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Although lethal execution drugs might be obtainable through some compounding pharmacies, they have become so difficult to acquire that some states have delayed executions for months or even years.
Dive Insight:
Pfizer "strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment," the company said in a statement Friday. The Times reported Pfizer would restrict the sale of seven drugs that could be used in executions to selected wholesalers, who will be "closely monitored" and must certify they will not sell the drugs to corrections departments.
Capital punishment opponents have increasingly put pressure on drug manufacturers not to supply the drugs needed for execution. In a method commonly used until recently, a three-drug combination of a barbituate, a paralytic and a drug to stop the prisoner's heart were used to perform executions.
But those drugs have become extremely difficult for corrections departments to obtain as drug companies tightened restrictions. That caused some states to turn to alternative execution methods or lightly regulated compounding pharmacies. Some of the alternative drug-based methods have been botched, leading to horror stories about slow executions.
The FDA has been involved in the controversy as well: It has repeatedly seized drug shipments it believed were intended for use in lethal injections. Most notably, in 2015, the FDA seized drugs purchased by Arizona and Texas for use in executions, saying they were illegally obtained overseas.