USA - Lundbeck, the supplier of pentobarbital, says it's not going to withdraw or restrict it

Lundbeck A/S, the Danish company that has become the key supplier of pentobarbital, says it's not going to withdraw or restrict it, even though it objects to the chemical being "misused" for capital punishment. Lundbeck is doing "all we can" to dissuade U.S. states from using pentobarbital for lethal injections, but won't pull it from the U.S. market, CEO Ulf Wiinberg told The Associated Press today from Copenhagen. Pentobarbital is a sedative with a range of medical uses, including treatment of epileptic seizures. It also is used to euthanize animals. "Financially speaking this is not an important product for us and we thought about whether we should withdraw it and the reaction we got from doctors was that they didn't want us to withdraw the product," Wiinberg said at the drug maker's annual shareholders meeting in Copenhagen on the 25th. As the only company making the drug, Lundbeck found itself in an awkward position as death penalty states started switching to pentobarbital for lethal injections to replace another chemical that's no longer readily available. Pentobarbital has already been used to execute prisoners in Ohio and Oklahoma. The first execution in Texas using pentobarbital is scheduled for next week. Mississippi and Arizona are also considering switching to pentobarbital for lethal injections. "One of our products is being misused," Wiinberg said. "When we heard about this, we went out and took a very clear position, saying we are against the misuse of our product and that we, as an organization, made it clear that we are against death penalty." Lundbeck A/S has written letters to prison authorities in U.S. states asking them not to use pentobarbital for lethal injections, but to no avail so far. The company is now coming under pressure from human rights groups opposed to the death penalty to take stronger action, such as rewriting distribution contracts with clauses prohibiting sales of pentobarbital to U.S. prisons. Lundbeck rejected that idea, saying it would be impossible for distributors to follow up on how every vial is used. Lundbeck says it sells about 50 million doses of pentobarbital a year. "We don't believe it will work and we will not do it," Wiinberg told the AP. London-based human rights group Reprieve called the decision "disappointing and cowardly." "We had hoped for a more courageous response, but apparently Lundbeck would rather preserve their U.S. commercial interests than prisoners' lives," Reprieve investigator Maya Foa said in an email to the AP.