The Dutch public employees’ pension fund, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP (ABP), has divested from the pharmaceutical company Mylan after learning that the Virginia Department of Corrections had supplies of one of Mylan’s products in stock for use in executions. A spokesman for ABP - which with net assets of $416 billion is the world’s third largest pension fund - said, “As the Dutch government and Dutch society as a whole renounced the death penalty a long time ago, we do not want Dutch pension money to be involved in that.” Although Mylan states on its website that its products are not intended for use in executions, fund managers were not satisfied with the company’s measures to keep the drugs out of lethal injections. ABP held €25 million shares in Mylan in 2014, but began selling them off during 9 months of unfruitful discussions with the company. ABP says it sold its remaining €9 million ($10 million) Mylan holdings in full because “We thought we have only one step left to show our disapproval.” The divestment is part of ongoing efforts by European officials to discourage executions in the U.S., which the European Union regards as a human rights violation. European companies are banned from exporting drugs for use in executions, and several European drug companies have put distribution restrictions in place to stop their products from being used in lethal injection.

(T. Escritt, “Largest Dutch pension fund exits Mylan over death penalty concerns,” Reuters, August 29, 2015.) See Lethal Injection.