TEXAS (USA): EXECUTIONS THREATENED AS STOCKS OF DEATH PENALTY DRUG RUN LOW

February 14, 2012: According to the human rights group Reprieve, Texas is running out of the drugs used for lethal injections and may be unable to carry out executions later this year.
The current supply of pentobarbital, a barbiturate used as the important first drug in Texas's three-drug protocol, is only sufficient for six executions, the number of death row inmates scheduled for execution in the next four months. 
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined "for security reasons" to confirm how much pentobarbital it has in reserve.
In Georgia, prison officials have enough pentobarbital for four executions, the same number of executions the state carried out in 2011.
Dwindling supplies of pentobarbital is largely attributed to the opposition of the drug's manufacturer, Lundbeck Inc., to its use in executions. 
Last summer, Lundbeck, the Danish company that makes pentobarbital under the trademark Nembutal, placed strict restrictions on its distribution to prevent it falling into the hands of US executioners.
Reprieve’s calculations show that Texas has 27 vials of Nembutal left in its stocks, with each vial containing 2.5g of the sedative. The state needs 2 vials to inject into each condemned prisoner, and a further 2 as a back-up in case of problems with the first, as outlined in its official execution procedures. That is sufficient for 6.75 executions.
Similarly, Georgia has 17 vials of pentobarbital left, Reprieve has calculated – just over four executions' worth. (Source: The Guardian, 14/02/2012)