Seven Maryland health care centers that received tainted steroids linked to a nationwide meningitis outbreak will be required to turn over documents and give testimony under subpoenas filed last week in a federal lawsuit.
A steering committee of lawyers representing patients who were given doses of the medication filed 76 of the subpoenas across the country. Patients in 22 states received injections of the steroids last year before they were recalled; 745 of them developed fungal meningitis or other health issues as a result, and 58 died.
"The purpose is to shed light on how this all happened," said Elisha Hawk, a lawyer with the Pikesville firm Janet, Jenner & Suggs, who is leading the steering committee's efforts in Maryland. There were 26 cases of meningitis and other illnesses in Maryland, and three deaths.
The subpoenas were filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, where federal lawsuits from around the country are being consolidated. New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc., of Framingham, Mass., is the defendant in the lawsuits, accused of substandard practices that led to contamination of three lots of the steroids.
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