Pharmaceutical company Alvogen is spearheading a lawsuit objecting to the use of their drugs in the execution of a prisoner in Nevada. The company, whose lawsuit has been joined by Hikma Pharmaceuticals, also alleges that Nevada obtained the drugs for inmate Scott Raymond Dozier improperly.
Alvogen is an American pharmaceutical company founded by Icelander Vilhelm Róbert Wessman in 2009 with operations in Iceland since 2010. The company’s European headquarters are located in Reykjavík, and the company’s website states “a large part of the group’s global key managers are Icelanders.”
Nevada law states capital punishment should be carried out by lethal injection. Alvogen, however, have objected to the use of their sedative midazolam in the state’s executions. The Nevada Supreme Court has argued that the lawsuit is “part of a guerrilla war against the death penalty,” while Deputy Solicitor General Jordan T. Smith called it a “public relations wave.”
Dozier, 47, has said he wants the sentence to be carried out rather than spend his life in prison.
Icelandic media has picked up on the case, which has been making headlines in the United States. Read more about the case in English.
