Two years ago, 751 individuals became ill of a fungal form of meningitis after they were injected with tainted drug produced by New England Compounding Center (NECC). Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 64 of these individuals died.
Two years after the outbreak, officials revealed on Wednesday that 14 individuals connected with the now closed Massachusetts-based compounding pharmacy were arrested with Barry Caden, NECC's co-founder and senior pharmacist, and Glenn Adam Chin, the pharmacist in charge of the sterile room, facing the most serious charges.
Caden and Chin face 25 counts of second-degree murder. Once convicted, each could face up to life behind bars. Eleven other people were arrested making the high profile criminal case the country's biggest over contaminated medicine.
The 2012 outbreak was blamed on tainted steroid. Those who were sickened were injected with the preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate produced by NECC. Of the 20 states affected by the outbreak, Michigan, Indiana and Tennessee were the worst hit.
After the contaminated medication was found in the fall of 2012, regulators discovered a number of other potential contaminants at NECC's plant in Framingham including mold, standing water and dirty equipment in a supposedly sterile room. Pharmacists were also found using expired ingredients and not testing drugs for purity before sending them for use by patients in hospitals and pain clinics.
The prosecutors said that NECC, which was founded by Caden and his brother in law Gregory Conigliaro in 1998, was aware about the health violations but failed to report and fix the problems because it would require halting the productions.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Attorney Carmen Ortiz said that the high ranking officials and pharmacists of NECC knew that there were batches of injectable steroids that were tainted with fungus but still proceeded shipping the drugs. They also faked inspection logs and decided not to order recalls.
"They did this, knowing that injecting contaminated steroids into a person's central nervous system or other sensitive body part would was likely to cause death," Ortiz said during a press conference.
The outbreak led to drug recalls and doctors finding alternative sources for steroids used in treating back pain and other ailments. NECC gave up its license after the incident. It also filed for bankruptcy protection after the victims and their families filed hundreds of lawsuits.
