Missouri Returns Shipment of Drug Intended for Executions After 'System Failure,' Anesthetic Manufacturers Worry of Shortage

The Department of Corrections in Missouri announced on Wednesday that it will return a stock of a common anesthetic it had intended to use in two executions later this year.

According to the Associated Press, the department released a statement saying they still had a store of propofol, but did not specify whether it had ample amounts of the drug to use in the two executions.

Almost a year ago, the distributor of the propofol drug issued an urgent request for the Department of Corrections to send back the anesthetic. Executive of the Louisiana-based pharmaceutical distributor Morris & Dickson Co. Dale Kelley sent the Department of Corrections Director George Lombardi an email on Nov. 2 that requested the director return the propofol, since a "system failure" resulted in Morris & Dickson sending the drug to the department that breached an agreement between the company and its manufacturer, Fresenius Kabi. Morris & Dickinson was subsequently put on hold due to the misstep, and was barred from administering propofol, the most popular anesthetic used in hospitals in the United States.

"Please - Please - Please HELP," Kelley wrote in his email to Lombardi. "This system failure - a mistake - 1 carton of 20 vials - is going to affect thousands of Americans."

Fresenius Kabi, a company based in Germany, is one of 90 percent of the European sources that distribute propofol to the United States. But the majority of the European Union is against the death penalty, and might be prompted to limit exports of the drug if Missouri asks for a large enough supply. Spokesperson for Fresenius Kabi Matt Kuhn told the Associated Press that the company was worried that Missouri's request to use propofol for executions could lead to a shortage.

"EU regulations do not make a distinction on the source of a drug as export sanctions or bans ar considered," Kuhn wrote in a statement to AP. "We continue to communicate with concerned stakeholders, U.S. state, federal and EU officials to ensure that propofol is used only for its intended therapeutic purposes."

The Missouri Corrections Department said the remains of their propofol supply was made by a domestic producer.