The drug used in lethal injections in the US has become scarce across the country resulting in the delay of scheduled executions.

Many prisons in 35 states rely on the lethal injection that uses the anesthetic, sodium thiopental, to render condemned inmates unconscious shortly before their execution.

The anesthetic’s sole manufacturer, Hospira, halted production due to a third-party supply issue earlier this year and only expects to resume production early 2011.

Hospira spokesman, Dan Rosenberg, said, "We are working to get it back onto the market for our customers as soon as possible."

Nine states have a total of 17 executions scheduled between now and the end of January, including Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Following the injection of sodium thiopental, inmates sentenced to death are then injected intravenously with pancuronium bromide then paralyzes their muscles and stops their breathing, and finally, potassium chloride which stops the heart.

First they are put to sleep with sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide then paralyzes their muscles and stops their breathing, and finally, potassium chloride stops the heart.

The Illinois based pharmaceutical company is the sole U.S. manufacturer of the anesthetic.

The company sent a letter to all states last spring outlining its discomfort with the use of its drugs for executions, as it has done periodically.

"Hospira provides these products because they improve or save lives and markets them solely for use as indicated on the product labeling," Kees Groenhout, clinical research and development vice president, said in a March 31 letter the Associated Press reported.