The state of Texas, blocked from purchasing lethal injection drugs by major pharmaceutical companies that refuse to participate in executions, bought them instead from an in-state, compounding pharmacy with a history of more than a dozen safety and cleanliness violations, NPR has learned.
Rite-Away Pharmacy and Medical Supply in suburban San Antonio produced injectable pentobarbital from 2019 through at least late 2023 for Texas to use in executions, records from the state Department of Criminal Justice and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration revealed.
According to inspection documents from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, Rite-Away was cited more than a dozen times over the past decade. Over the course of multiple inspections, the pharmacy repeatedly failed to maintain clean and sterile facilities and failed to keep complete and correctly labeled records and drugs in stock, among other violations.
Federal authorities alleged another Rite-Away branch, owned by the same family, “fueled and profited from the opioid epidemic” and was implicated in the overdose death of a patient.
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