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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to prohibit American orders of three drugs used in lethal injections Britain is to ban the export to the US of three pharmaceutical drugs that are used to execute prisoners on death row, Vince Cable has said. An export ban for pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride – used in lethal injections – will be formalised in a few days, said the business secretary, who is urging a Europe-wide ban on sales of the drugs to the US. “We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances and are clear that British drugs should not be used to carry out lethal injections,” he said. “Because of the importance and urgency of the situation this is an issue on which we felt we had to take the lead.” The move comes after a parliamentary inquiry heard that enough pharmaceutical drugs have been sold to the US by licensed British wholesalers since last summer to execute 100 death row inmates. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last November imposed export controls on sodium thiopental, a rarely-used anaesthetic, after it emerged that a small-scale wholesaler working out of the back office of a west London driving school had sold the drug to Georgia’s and Arizona’s department of corrections. The anti-capital punishment charity Reprieve, which mounted a legal challenge to ban sodium thiopental, welcomed the new block on the three drugs. But the charity said US states imposing the death penalty via lethal injection are now turning to a Danish company, Lundbeck A/S, for supplies of pentobarbital. Denmark’s foreign minister said she will urge US states such as Texas and Ohio to stop using that drug. Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said: “Britain has now taken the lead in ending complicity in the US death penalty, which is very welcome. Since the US executing states are now turning to a Danish company, Lundbeck, to kill people, we must hope that the UK can persuade our EU partners to take a similar line.” Pentobarbital is a sedative with a range of medical uses, including the treatment of epileptic seizures and other conditions that require some form of sedation. It is often used for putting down animals. Since late last year, it has been used in the US for lethal injections after supplies of sodium thiopental became scarce. The Danish foreign minister, Lene Espersen, said she cannot take direct action against Lundbeck because the drug is produced by a plant in Kansas. Pentobarbital has been used to execute prisoners in Ohio and Oklahoma. Mississippi and Arizona are also considering switching to the drug for lethal injections. Lundbeck has written letters to US prison authorities asking them not to use pentobarbital for lethal injections, but with little effect. The pharmaceutical company, whose bestsellers include drugs for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders, is under pressure from human rights groups to take stronger action, such as rewriting distribution contracts with clauses prohibiting sales of pentobarbital to US prisons. Lundbeck has rejected that idea, saying it would be impossible for distributors to track how every vial is used. The company said it sells about 50mn doses of pentobarbital a year, but has declined to give any breakdown of sales. Pancuronium bromide is a muscle relaxant and potassium chloride is used to stop the heart and is sometimes used in abortion procedures. In February, a parliamentary inquiry heard that a shortage of supplies in the US was forcing American states to search abroad for painkillers, paralysing agents and heart-stopping compounds administered in lethal injections. Pharmaceuticals industry United States Denmark Europe David Batty guardian.co.uk