Judge to decide on Nevada’s execution drug lawsuit this week

Drug companies could encounter backlash and risk hurting their growth in the medical industry if their products are used in an execution, a pharmaceutical industry expert testified Monday.

Sean Nicholson of the National Bureau of Economic Research listed ways drug companies could be harmed if their products were used to put Nevada prisoner Scott Dozier to death, wrapping up a hearing in a lawsuit over the state’s capital punishment cocktail.

The potential damages he listed included investors selling off shares, profit losses and a loss of opportunities to license and develop with other firms. A botched execution could prolong negative media coverage focused on the companies, he said.

Assistant Solicitor General Jordan Smith, who represents the Nevada Department of Corrections, asked Nicholson how he knew harm would occur if most of the general population supports the death penalty.

“Because of the polarizing nature of it,” Nicholson responded, adding that the medical industry strongly discourages using drugs for executions.

District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez is expected to issue a decision on a preliminary injunction that would prevent the state’s prison system from using the drugs in an execution.

Drug companies have the right to remove and restrict medications that have already been sold, argued Todd Bice, who represents Alvogen, which produces the sedative midazolam.

“The end effect is that the public suffers,” Bice told the judge. “These drugs become less and less available for those who need them.”

Smith argued that the prison department made no misrepresentation to its third-party distributor when purchasing the drugs, and that the companies’ claims “drift into stay of execution” not allowed by law, rather than the legal issues of reclaiming drugs.

Lawyers for Alvogen, Hikma Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz have argued that the drug companies would suffer irreparable harm if their products were used in an execution and that the Department of Corrections should return the medications.

Dozier’s execution was halted in July, for the second time in nine months, after Alvogen sued the prison system. Dozier would be the first prisoner executed in Nevada since 2006. The inmate, who waived his legal appeals in late 2016, was sentenced to die in 2007 after first-degree murder and robbery convictions in the killing of Jeremiah Miller. Dozier had a murder conviction in Arizona before he was brought to Nevada to face charges in Miller’s death.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.