Monday, March 26, 2012
Nebraska stay will lead to focus on India-made drug
From The Hindu
When a U.S. prison was poised to execute an inmate, Michael Ryan, earlier this month using India-made drugs, it could have been a twisted take on the global outsourcing industry, and indeed it still might.
But for the moment not only Ryan but also an Indian-Swiss pharmaceutical company, Naari, which has fervently argued that 485 grams of unconsciousness-inducing sodium thiopental were taken from it under false pretences, have won a reprieve as the execution has been stayed pending an appeal.
Speaking to The Hindu, Ryan's attorney Jerry Soucie said his client had appealed the decision of a lower district court to proceed with the execution in a motion filed with the Nebraska Supreme Court.
“It will be several months before that appeal is resolved,” said Mr. Soucie, adding that the state prosecutor had not attempted to obtain an execution warrant while that appeal was pending.
Significantly, Mr. Soucie indicated that Ryan was considering filing a motion for declaratory judgment to resolve whether Nebraska law authorises the use of lethal drugs “imported in violation of federal law... and the use of lethal drugs obtained by a broker by misrepresentation to the supplier [Naari]”.
The first part of that motion pertains to attempts by a middleman named Chris Harris to procure the thiopental from a Mumbai-based firm, Kayem Pharmaceuticals. When a U.K.-based anti-death penalty group, Reprieve, publicised Mr. Harris' interactions with Kayem, it said it would immediately halt all exports of thiopental to the U.S.
The State of Nebraska is one of a growing group of U.S. States starved of lethal drugs after the sole manufacturer in the U.S., a firm called Hospira, voluntarily shut down its operations in 2010 following public pressure.
While Mr. Harris had been on a surreptitious search for killer drugs overseas for the last few years, his attempt to provide Nebraska with the Kayem drugs backfired after two U.S. regulators, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, cautioned that proper importation procedures had not been followed and required certifications not obtained.
In the case of the Naari drugs, though Nebraska got past preliminary legal hurdles to proceeding with the execution, company CEO Prithi Kochhar dashed off an anxious letter to Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican, in which he expressed his dismay at the prospect of Naari's drugs being used in execution procedures.
The latest developments will likely lead to further deliberation on the use of the Naari drugs in the execution procedure. When asked whether Ryan's sentence itself might be reviewed if the court found in his favour, Mr. Soucie said if that happened then “all bets would be off”.
He said that even in such an instance his best guess was that Nebraska “would abandon relying solely on sodium thiopental and go to another drug, or list of drugs, that could be used as a substitute for thiopental”.
While Mr. Soucie added that he did not know why the prison did not move to such a “Plan B” months ago, it is quite possible that the untested nature of alternatives such as pentobarbital, an animal euthanasia barbiturate, could lead to undesired public scrutiny if it led to an excruciating death for inmates, as they have been alleged to do in the past.
When a U.S. prison was poised to execute an inmate, Michael Ryan, earlier this month using India-made drugs, it could have been a twisted take on the global outsourcing industry, and indeed it still might.
But for the moment not only Ryan but also an Indian-Swiss pharmaceutical company, Naari, which has fervently argued that 485 grams of unconsciousness-inducing sodium thiopental were taken from it under false pretences, have won a reprieve as the execution has been stayed pending an appeal.
Speaking to The Hindu, Ryan's attorney Jerry Soucie said his client had appealed the decision of a lower district court to proceed with the execution in a motion filed with the Nebraska Supreme Court.
“It will be several months before that appeal is resolved,” said Mr. Soucie, adding that the state prosecutor had not attempted to obtain an execution warrant while that appeal was pending.
Significantly, Mr. Soucie indicated that Ryan was considering filing a motion for declaratory judgment to resolve whether Nebraska law authorises the use of lethal drugs “imported in violation of federal law... and the use of lethal drugs obtained by a broker by misrepresentation to the supplier [Naari]”.
The first part of that motion pertains to attempts by a middleman named Chris Harris to procure the thiopental from a Mumbai-based firm, Kayem Pharmaceuticals. When a U.K.-based anti-death penalty group, Reprieve, publicised Mr. Harris' interactions with Kayem, it said it would immediately halt all exports of thiopental to the U.S.
The State of Nebraska is one of a growing group of U.S. States starved of lethal drugs after the sole manufacturer in the U.S., a firm called Hospira, voluntarily shut down its operations in 2010 following public pressure.
While Mr. Harris had been on a surreptitious search for killer drugs overseas for the last few years, his attempt to provide Nebraska with the Kayem drugs backfired after two U.S. regulators, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, cautioned that proper importation procedures had not been followed and required certifications not obtained.
In the case of the Naari drugs, though Nebraska got past preliminary legal hurdles to proceeding with the execution, company CEO Prithi Kochhar dashed off an anxious letter to Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican, in which he expressed his dismay at the prospect of Naari's drugs being used in execution procedures.
The latest developments will likely lead to further deliberation on the use of the Naari drugs in the execution procedure. When asked whether Ryan's sentence itself might be reviewed if the court found in his favour, Mr. Soucie said if that happened then “all bets would be off”.
He said that even in such an instance his best guess was that Nebraska “would abandon relying solely on sodium thiopental and go to another drug, or list of drugs, that could be used as a substitute for thiopental”.
While Mr. Soucie added that he did not know why the prison did not move to such a “Plan B” months ago, it is quite possible that the untested nature of alternatives such as pentobarbital, an animal euthanasia barbiturate, could lead to undesired public scrutiny if it led to an excruciating death for inmates, as they have been alleged to do in the past.
Labels: Kayem Pharmaceuticals, lethal drugs, Naari, Nebraska Supreme Court
Sunday, March 25, 2012
U.S. prison may use India-made execution drug
From The Hindu
When the Nebraska Supreme Court on Thursday issued a stay of execution in favour of death-row inmate Michael Ryan, it was not just Ryan who breathed a sigh of relief but also the proprietors of a pharmaceutical company in faraway Kashipur in Uttarakhand.
For, had the execution proceeded as per schedule on March 6, Ryan would have been injected with drugs made by the Swiss-Indian company, Naari, which has since last August consistently argued that 485 grams of sodium thiopental, an unconsciousness-inducing drug, was taken from it under false pretences and handed over to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS).
Why is a U.S. prison using execution drugs obtained though allegedly fraudulent means, from India? Lethal injection procedures in this country have, for the last few years, been rocked by the voluntary shutdown of a firm called Hospira, oddly the sole producer of sodium thiopental in the U.S. at the time.
Since that event in 2010, a slew of correctional facilities have continued to seek out alternative suppliers of the drug or switch to pentobarbital, a veterinary euthanasia barbiturate used to put down dogs. After attempts to source sodium thiopental from a firm in the United Kingdom met with a storm of opposition across Europe and led to the ban of all such drug exports to the U.S. in that continent, one Mumbai-based firm called Kayem Pharmaceuticals was contacted by an intermediary acting on behalf of the NDCS.
When a U.K.-based anti-death penalty group called Reprieve highlighted the fact that despite not being approved by U.S. regulators, Kayem had handed over 500 one-gram vials of thiopental — enough to kill 166 men — to the middleman named Chris Harris, and then it had passed on to the NDCS, the intense pressure on Kayem led to it stating publicly that it would immediately halt all exports of thiopental to the U.S.
Yet the fate of Naari's drugs remains uncertain, this despite Naari CEO Prithi Kochhar dashing off an anxious letter to Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican, in which he said he was “shocked and appalled” by the prospect that Naari's drugs could thus be used in execution procedures.
Mr. Kochhar went on to explain to the Chief Justice that “the agreement with Mr. Harris was that he would use these vials for registration in Zambia. Our intention was to get the product registered in Zambia and then begin selling it there, since sodium thiopental is used very widely as an anaesthetic in the developing world.”
Mr. Kochhar's hope is that the drugs that he alleges Mr. Harris misappropriated and diverted from their intended purpose would be “returned immediately to its rightful owners, that is, that it be returned to us at Naari.” If his wish is granted, the court would have to deny the right of the thiopental-starved NDCS to inject Ryan with an untested, uncertified chemical.
When the Nebraska Supreme Court on Thursday issued a stay of execution in favour of death-row inmate Michael Ryan, it was not just Ryan who breathed a sigh of relief but also the proprietors of a pharmaceutical company in faraway Kashipur in Uttarakhand.
For, had the execution proceeded as per schedule on March 6, Ryan would have been injected with drugs made by the Swiss-Indian company, Naari, which has since last August consistently argued that 485 grams of sodium thiopental, an unconsciousness-inducing drug, was taken from it under false pretences and handed over to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS).
Why is a U.S. prison using execution drugs obtained though allegedly fraudulent means, from India? Lethal injection procedures in this country have, for the last few years, been rocked by the voluntary shutdown of a firm called Hospira, oddly the sole producer of sodium thiopental in the U.S. at the time.
Since that event in 2010, a slew of correctional facilities have continued to seek out alternative suppliers of the drug or switch to pentobarbital, a veterinary euthanasia barbiturate used to put down dogs. After attempts to source sodium thiopental from a firm in the United Kingdom met with a storm of opposition across Europe and led to the ban of all such drug exports to the U.S. in that continent, one Mumbai-based firm called Kayem Pharmaceuticals was contacted by an intermediary acting on behalf of the NDCS.
When a U.K.-based anti-death penalty group called Reprieve highlighted the fact that despite not being approved by U.S. regulators, Kayem had handed over 500 one-gram vials of thiopental — enough to kill 166 men — to the middleman named Chris Harris, and then it had passed on to the NDCS, the intense pressure on Kayem led to it stating publicly that it would immediately halt all exports of thiopental to the U.S.
Yet the fate of Naari's drugs remains uncertain, this despite Naari CEO Prithi Kochhar dashing off an anxious letter to Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican, in which he said he was “shocked and appalled” by the prospect that Naari's drugs could thus be used in execution procedures.
Mr. Kochhar went on to explain to the Chief Justice that “the agreement with Mr. Harris was that he would use these vials for registration in Zambia. Our intention was to get the product registered in Zambia and then begin selling it there, since sodium thiopental is used very widely as an anaesthetic in the developing world.”
Mr. Kochhar's hope is that the drugs that he alleges Mr. Harris misappropriated and diverted from their intended purpose would be “returned immediately to its rightful owners, that is, that it be returned to us at Naari.” If his wish is granted, the court would have to deny the right of the thiopental-starved NDCS to inject Ryan with an untested, uncertified chemical.
Labels: death penalty, execution drug, Indian pharmaceutical company, Nebraska Supreme Court
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