FDA Orders Texas, Arizona to Destroy Their Execution Drugs

The FDA has officially notified Texas and Arizona that they must destroy their supplies of execution drugs on the grounds that they were illegally obtained.

The agency has blocked Texas officials from using a shipment of 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental the state attempted to import from a manufacturer in India. The state has countered with a lawsuit, arguing the FDA was illegally blocking import of the drugs.

“The FDA has notified the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Arizona Department of Corrections that their detained shipments of sodium thiopental have been refused on the basis that the detained drugs appear to be unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs. As such, the shipments must be exported or destroyed,” FDA spokesperson Lyndsay Meyer, told DID. The agency gave the states 90 days to export or destroy the drugs.

The shipment to Texas, where 254 inmates are on death row, has been in storage for months.