Pharma company protests use of epilepsy med for executions.

[Anymouse]

After the only manufacturer in the USA ceased production of sodium thiopental (known here as sodium pentothal, or truth serum) last year (a veterinary drug used in lethal injections) and a worldwide ban was imposed on exporting it to the United States, executions halted briefly. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39385026/ns/...xecutions/

Death penalty states are turning to phenobarbital (pentobarbital), used to treat severe epilepsy. Originally developed by Bayer in Germany and sold as Luminal, it was first used in the Nazi “final solution” for elderly, epileptic, and disabled people in 1934. It was discovered to have a positive effect on seizures by Bayer.

I take phenobarbital for my seizures, as other medications have not worked or had life-threatening side effects. While phenobarbital is listed by WHO as a critical medication for any basic clinic, in the USA it is difficult to get a prescription for.

When Virginia was unable to obtain more sodium thiopental as manufacturers around the world attempted to prevent its use in executions in the United States for moral or public relations reasons (the USA is the only industrialized nation with the death penalty and companies don’t want to be known as “Dr. Pharma Death” in their own countries), that state executed a convicted murderer today over the strong objections of the manufacturer with phenobarbital.

Lundbeck points out they are in the business of saving lives, not ending them. Phenobarbital amounts to 1% of Lundbeck Pharmaceutical’s sales.

Last month the company announced a new program after conferring with physicians who expressed concern that Lundbeck might discontinue phenobarbital because of executions using the drug, advocating for their epilepsy patients. Lundbeck announced they would no longer ship it to state governments or prisons in death penalty states, and would require all patients to sign a waiver in the future that the drug is only for them, and they will not transfer it without the company’s approval, in an effort to keep it out of the hands of those state governments.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14579136 (full article, this is international news today).

The states care more about executing a handful of people (a small percentage of which will be exonerated after the fact) over the needs of tens of thousands of people with epilepsy. “Tough on crime” gets more votes than “concerned about health care,” as witnessed in the arguments about health care reform.

What concerns me is that the Federal government has the death penalty for twenty-three crimes, and the Government Services Agency purchases products for the whole Federal government. The Feds have already done things like tried to force states without death penalties to carry them out (Michigan stands out last year in its refusal in the face of losing all Federal funding). Lundbeck cannot prevent redistribution of phenobarbital from the Veterans Administration to the Bureau of Prisons, for example. Lundbeck can only stop the Feds using their drugs for death by stopping sales to the Federal government, and then I lose my epilepsy med.

Of all the meds on the market, it is the only one I can use safely, a problem many people with epilepsy have. The FDA has already tried to remove it from the market, as it is not regulated for safety and efficacy by them, being a pre-1934 drug. Now the state (and presumably Federal) governments will pressure the FDA to drop its position against the medication.

- James

Following in Mark Twain's footsteps: "I had to hurry to the mirror to see if I was still there." - Québec Premier Jean Charest, Aug 16, 2011, after a hacker posted the hoax that he'd died of a heart attack to a newspaper Website, which circulated on Twitter.