FDA goes to court to secure drugs for lethal injections (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Matt McGrath
Science reporter, BBC World Service

The US Food and Drug Administration is going to court to secure supplies of a drug used in lethal injections.

Sodium thiopental is used in many states to anaesthetise prisoners before the administration of other chemicals that extinguish life.

However supplies have dwindled in the US after a judge banned its importation in March.

Campaigners against the death penalty say the restrictions have forced a slowdown in the rate of executions.

The last US manufacturer of sodium thiopental ceased production in 2009. Since then the drug has been imported mainly from companies within the European Union. Several states purchased supplies from a UK based firm called Dream Pharma, run from a driving school in west London.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18253578




Your tax dollars at work, folks.

[Major Nikon]

1. So much for primum non nocere