Regular Inspections Could Have Prevented Meningitis Outbreak

By Karen Anderson, WBZ-TV

October 23, 2012 12:10 AM

BOSTON (CBS) – Hundreds of documents released by the state show a history of problems at the New England Compounding Center, many warning signs, and very few inspections.

We asked Professor Todd Brown of Northeastern to look over hundreds of pages of documents for the I-Team.
Brown showed NECC’s violations date back to 1999, and they range from complaints from hospitals and doctors about their practices to selling a tainted drug. Brown says the files show two patients were harmed by NECC’s injectable steroid drugs in 2003.

The meningitis case isn’t the first time NECC has had tainted drugs, according to state records.
For example, in 2003, the documents show that NECC had medicines contaminated with an endotoxin. According to Professor Brown, an endotoxin is a substance released by bacteria that causes symptoms of infection.
All of the problems resulted in an agreement with the state: NECC agreed to hire a consultant to resolve its problems, but received no disciplinary action.
Brown says the Board of Pharmacy repeatedly inspected NECC and found the company to be in compliance with state laws, despite the fact there were obvious warning signs they were illegally mass producing drugs.
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