A pharmacist has been arrested for his alleged connection with the fungal meningitis outbreak that occurred at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Glenn Adam Chin was a supervising pharmacist at NECC at the time of the outbreak. Federal authorities arrested Mr. Chin as he was attempting to board a flight to Hong Kong. He was charged with one count of mail fraud.
Mr. Chin was allegedly part of a scheme that fraudulently labeled one lot of methylprednisolone acetate as injectable, or sterile and fit for human use. The allegedly mislabeled lot was shipped to a customer, Michigan Pain Specialists. Upon receiving the shipment and believing the drug to be injectable, physicians administered the drug to patients. Of the patients who received the drug, 217 contracted fungal meningitis, 15 of whom died.
Overall, more than 750 patients in 20 states contracted fungal meningitis after receiving injections of MPA from NECC, 64 of whom died.
According to an affidavit filed by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration special agent, Mr. Chin's responsibilities as a supervising pharmacist included overseeing four other pharmacists and more than 10 pharmacy technicians and compounding medications sold by NECC. The affidavit alleges the compounded medications were prepared, filled and held under unsanitary conditions. Furthermore, Mr. Chin allegedly instructed pharmacy technicians to fraudulently fill in cleaning logs saying the rooms were properly maintained.
Mr. Chin also allegedly improperly sterilized and improperly tested supposedly sterile medication and again instructed pharmacy technicians to label the medications as sterile and adequately tested.
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