The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services ordered about USD 825 worth of pancuronium bromide last month from Gulf Coast Pharmaceuticals Plus, which replaced a firm that was dissolved in 2013 after it faced disciplinary action in other states, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Documents obtained through an open records request show the order was placed October 14, amid an ongoing challenge to lawmakers' decision to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska, which hasn't carried out an execution in 18 years. The four- box order was canceled a day later, after the company said the product wasn't available.
Similar orders by Arizona and Texas that made it to the United States were confiscated by federal authorities. Both drugs are required as part of Nebraska's three-drug lethal injection protocol, but sodium thiopental currently has no legal uses in the US Nebraska already has the third drug, potassium chloride, which is used to stop the heart.
The latest attempted purchase reflects problems faced by many death-penalty states trying to buy drugs for executions amid a nationwide shortage. It also followed months of public statements by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts that the state was working to import the drug from India-based Harris Pharma. The US Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly said states cannot legally import lethal injection drugs, but Nebraska and others have attempted to do so.
Gulf Coast Pharmaceuticals Plus, based in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, bills itself as a pharmaceutical distributor to hospitals, pharmacies and physician practices. The company is owned by Debra Ritchey.