Fourteen officials, pharmacists and technicians tied to the Massachusetts company involved in a meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people were indicted on charges including racketeering and second-degree murder, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The New England Compounding Center’s tainted drugs, including a steroid administered by spinal injection to treat pain, infected 751 people in 20 states, U.S. officials have said. The 2012 outbreak was caused by sloppy clean-room practices, including routine failure to properly sterilize drugs, according to the indictment unsealed today in Boston. Barry Cadden, NECC’s former president and lead pharmacist, and Glenn Chin, a supervising pharmacist who was arrested at a Boston airport in September, are accused of second-degree murder over the deaths of dozens of people in states including Indiana, Maryland and Florida. The company, formerly New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc., suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2012 as a result of lawsuits by victims and families. The company and its insurers in August won court approval of a settlement of almost $100 million.
