Posted on 12/18/2014 5:57:10 AM PST by jalisco555
BOSTON — Two senior executives of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy were charged Wednesday with racketeering and murder in the production of tainted drugs that killed 64 people and sickened hundreds of others across the country with fungal meningitis in the fall of 2012.
The United States attorney’s office here charged Barry J. Cadden, an owner of New England Compounding Center Inc. and the head pharmacist, and Glenn A. Chin, a supervisory pharmacist, with 25 acts of second-degree murder in seven states — Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
“Senior N.E.C.C. pharmacists knew that, despite the filthy conditions at N.E.C.C., the drugs that they made were not property tested for sterility,” said Carmen Ortiz, the United States attorney for Massachusetts.
In all, 14 people were charged in a 131-count indictment, many of them pharmacists at the company, which is now closed. The charges include mail fraud, conspiracy and violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Most were taken into custody at their homes early Wednesday, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Not sure about second degree murder.
Negligent homicide?
Sounds like a good candidate for 'throw the book, see if anything sticks'.
The guys might actually be slimeballs, but nothing connected with this maladministion is to be trusted.
Apparently federal definitions differ from state definitions of murder I’m somewhat familiar with. State laws generally require proof of intent to kill to convict of murder.
Federal laws only require evidence the accused “acted with extreme indifference to human life.” Which would seem to be a slam dunk in this case.
My line of work is somewhat tangentially related to theirs, and I know for a fact it’s difficult to keep people thoroughly focused on the need for cleanliness and sanitation. If management not only does push it, but actually encourages ignoring it, things will get real bad real fast.
I’m wondering if the company wasn’t advised of the deaths initially and didn’t pull the tainted medicine. Or, if the unsanitary conditions were SO BAD that it would have been known that the medicine was most likely contaminated. IMHO.
I'm not a lawyer but I am a doctor and if these charges are true it's pretty horrifying. But your cautions are noted.
I read this yesterday, but was doing holiday stuff and didn’t post it cause I didn’t want to ruin the mood. But if convicted, they’re going down for a looong time.
Now people know why we have “Pure Food and Drug Laws.
Libs have it in for compounding pharmacies. They have become the sole source of drugs for lethal injection since major pharmas will no longer sell for this.
The family hosted fundraisers for Scott Brown.
Need we say more? We are dealing with the most corrupt President in our history.
Absolutely !
If it pans out, they're utter scum and should be dealt with accordingly.
cheers, doc d:^)
Yeah -I work in the device industry and have seen similar charges against individuals for knowingly shipping bad product. But they didn’t intend to kill, it was about the money.
I would have thought the charges would be negligent homicide or manslaughter charges, but murder? That seems a stretch... but if the definition is as you state in the fed code, then yeah I get it.
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