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Report: Ohio Conducted Executions After Drugmakers’ Warnings
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A report says Ohio went ahead with executions in recent years even after drugmakers threatened to cut off supplies if medications were used for lethal injection.
Copies of letters obtained by The Columbus Dispatch show drugmakers warned Ohio officials going back to at least 2015.
The paper reported Wednesday that London-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals told the then-prisons director in 2016 it might cut off supplies. The paper says Ohio went ahead and bought one of its drugs, the sedative midazolam, for use in its three-drug protocol.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who took office in January, has said he’s concerned drugmakers would cut Ohio’s supplies of pharmaceuticals used for a multitude of medical purposes if Ohio ignores manufacturers’ warnings against using drugs for executions.