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Nevada District Judge Halts Use of Alvogen’s Drugs in Lethal Injection Executions

By September 25, 2018 October 25th, 2019 No Comments

On September 28, 2018 a District Court judge in Nevada granted a preliminary injunction to American pharmaceutical company Alvogen, prohibiting the use of the company’s drugs in lethal injection executions in the state.

Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez found that Nevada had used ‘subterfuge’ and ‘bad faith’ to obtain the drugs in question, determining that because the state was aware that Alvogen had restricted distribution agreements in place on its Midazolam product at the time of payment, the state ‘could not be a good faith purchaser for value and could only have acquired voidable title.

Alvogen, later joined by pharmaceutical manufacturers Hikma and Sandoz, initiated legal action against the state on July 10, 2018, alleging that Nevada officials acquired the company’s medicines ‘illicitly and through subterfuge’ for use in an upcoming execution.

The following day, Judge Gonzalez issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting Nevada officials from using Alvogen’s drug and leading the Nevada Department of Corrections to halt the execution of a prisoner scheduled for the same day.

In issuing the preliminary injunction, Judge Gonzalez stated that Alvogen had demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on its replevin claim.

Read more from Judge Gonzalez's order