Pharmacist Arrested in Fungal Meningitis Outbreak Case

The Boston division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced the arrest of a former supervising pharmacist at the New England Compounding Center (NECC) on one count of mail fraud. The criminal complaint is linked to a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak that began in fall 2012 and has been traced to injections of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) compounded at NECC.

Glenn Adam Chin was a supervising pharmacist at NECC involved in compounding the contaminated MPA that led to the outbreak. Chin is charged in the criminal complaint with participating in a scheme to fraudulently cause one lot of MPA to be labeled as injectable and shipped to Michigan Pain Specialists, a customer of NECC. Doctors at Michigan Pain Specialists injected the drug into patients after receiving the MPA, believing that it was sterile and fit for human use as per the injectable label. A total of 217 patients contracted fungal meningitis, of which 15 died.

Chin was charged and arrested after federal authorities learned that he was scheduled to depart the country on an international flight. The criminal investigation against Chin and others is ongoing. The maximum sentence under the statute is 20 years in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

For more information visit FBI.gov.

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