Pentobarbital: The Irreversible Cure

Why did the US executioners replace sodium thiopental with pentobarbital?

The anesthetic used in most lethal injection cocktails in the US had long been sodium thiopental. The sole manufacturer, until 2010, was Hospira Inc., which never officially approved the use of its drug for executions.

Hospira transferred its manufacturing plant for the sodium thiopental to a state-of-the art factory in Italy in order to increase an already very small profit margin on this product. Italy, one of the leading European countries opposed to the death penalty, imposed a clause in Hospira’s sales contract, before approving this activity on its territory, in order to restrict the use of sodium thiopental for medical purposes exclusively. Unable to uphold this clause, because of wholesale suppliers, Hospira decided to stop producing the sodium thiopental altogether. Several US states went out of their way, at the taxpayers’ expense, to acquire – sometimes paying 1000% of the market value – the remaining stock of sodium thiopental via several wholesalers in Europe and India or even via other departments of corrections in the US, which had sufficient stock.

For the killing states, it was urgent to replace the sodium thiopental and so pentobarbital was chosen, either as a substitute for the sodium thiopental or as a one-drug solution to be used for the upcoming executions.

So enters Lundbeck, a reputed European pharmaceutical laboratory based in Denmark.

To be continued…



About The Pentobarbital Experiment

"Lundbeck is a global pharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development, production, marketing and sale of drugs for treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders." As the sole supplier of Pentobarbital to US departments of corrections, Danish company Lundbeck took an active and dedicated part in the executions of human beings. This is a clear violation of its ethical obligations as a European pharmaceutical laboratory. Its manufacturing plant for Pentobarbital is based in Kansas, USA. Here is the full story: the facts and the numbers brought to you by European activists dedicated to the universal abolition of the death penalty. Disclaimer: This blog was created to raise awareness and to encourage legitimate citizen actions to bring an end to the torturous executions in the USA. It does not, and never did advocate violence or retaliation against whoever participates in the legal lynchings of human beings. View all posts by The Pentobarbital Experiment

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