Texas launches lawsuit against FDA over lethal drug shipment
pharmafile | January 4, 2017 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development | FDA, texas
The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit against the FDA to try to force a decision to be made on an impounded shipments of drugs used as part of the lethal injection process. The drugs have been held for 17 months, after the FDA held the shipment of 1,000 vials to determine whether they violated imported drug regulations.
The drug, sodium thiopental, is a barbiturate that is used as part of three-drug cocktail in lethal injections given as part of a death penalty. The drug is used to knock the prisoners unconscious before the cocktail takes effect.
“There are only two reasons why the FDA would take 17 months to make a final decision on Texas’ importation of thiopental sodium: gross incompetence or willful obstruction,” Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, said in a statement. “The FDA has an obligation to fulfill its responsibilities faithfully and in a timely manner. My office will not allow the FDA to sit on its hands and thereby impair Texas’ responsibility to carry out its law enforcement duties.”
The strong language used by Paxton is indicative of the difficult situation that Texas, and other states that favour the death penalty, have in procuring the drugs necessary to carry out the lethal injections. There has been a concerted move away from producing and selling the drugs involved in the injection by drug manufacturers, who faced strong opposition from capital punishment opponents and the bad press associated with producing such compounds.
This has resulted in many states struggling to source the drugs required to carry out injections. Hence, this meant that Texas had to order its drugs from overseas, from an unknown supplier. Texas brought in a law, in September 2016, that it was not obliged to divulge the supplier of drugs used in the lethal injection.
The fact that the FDA is in no rush to allow the drugs to pass onto Texas suggests that something of a struggle is ongoing between the two, as Texas attempts a way around increasing restrictions upon acquiring the drugs it claims is necessary to carry out its law enforcement.
Ben Hargreaves
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