Seventh Question of the Day November 30, 2013 Was there more the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy could have done in the NECC outbreak? Did it really do all that it could have? I do think it deserves kudos for what all it did do, but are there Colorado state criminal laws that were broken? I pose this question because IACP's position is someone like NECC would not register under the DQSA. Assuming this is true, then states need to be prepared to take more aggressive enforcement action in the future to stop another NECC outbreak.

In 2011, a year before the outbreak, the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy detected problems with the NECC when it was determined that the company was distributing compounded drugs in our state that had been manufactured ahead of time without first obtaining patient-specific prescriptions. This left Colorado patients at risk for being given a medication not appropriate for their specific medical needs and necessary health requirements.

Our state board issued a cease-and-desist order to the NECC, and notified the Massachusetts Board as well. But that was all it could do; ultimately, it was not enough to stop the NECC’s actions and prevent the tragic outbreak that swept across the nation a year later. Despite Colorado’s warnings, the state of Massachusetts did not act and, because it was hamstrung by existing regulations, the FDA could not act, either.

quoted from here