Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Records detail Massachusetts firm linked to meningitis


  • Associated Press
  • Posted October 23, 2012 at 5:18 a.m.
  • — New state documents detail problems found in 2006 by an outside firm hired to do an assessment at the company at the center of a deadly meningitis outbreak.
    The state documents, obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request, say investigators in 2006 found inadequate contamination control and no written standard operating procedures for using equipment, among other problems, at the New England Compounding Center. The problems were corrected that year, and a state inspection in May 2011 as the company prepared to update its facilities found no such issues.
    The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened nearly 300 people, including 23 who died, in more than a dozen states. Each victim had received a steroid shot, mostly for back pain. Federal health officials matched the shots produced by the company to the outbreak after finding a deadly fungus in more than 50 unopened vials there but have not said how the shots were contaminated.
    A congressional committee on Monday sought a decade's worth of records from the company.

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