Pfizer Tightens Restrictions to Keep Drugs From Being Used in Executions
Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, said Friday that it was tightening restrictions on its drugs to ensure that they are not used in lethal injections, a move that further clamps down on the chemicals states can obtain for executions.
While Pfizer had previously said that it had restrictions in place to keep its drugs from being used in lethal injections, the company had acknowledged that it could not guarantee that no prison would obtain lethal injection drugs. This new policy adds in a system of monitoring to ensure that its drugs do not wind up sold to prisons for lethal injections.
This announcement comes as the dwindling number of states that still carry out lethal injections have scrambled to obtain drugs amid an ongoing shortage, which has forced some to adopt a series of new lethal injection protocols aimed at letting them carry out executions.
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