Patrick: Framingham Pharmacy May Have Misled Regulators
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — Gov. Deval Patrick says the specialty pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak may have misled regulators and done work beyond the scope of its state license.
The New England Compounding Center in Framingham made a steroid that was used in contaminated injections that have sickened 137 people in 10 states. Twelve have died, the CDC said Thursday.
Patrick told reporters Wednesday that state and federal agencies "may have been misled by some of the information we were given."
He says the company was supposed to fill specific prescriptions for specific patients but instead made big batches of medicine and sold them out of state.
He says that was outside of its state license.
A message requesting comment was left with a company spokesman. The company has shut down and is cooperating with investigators.
On Wednesday, a second Massachusetts company run by the same executives agreed to temporarily shut down. Ameridose, located in Westborough, provides sterile medication in prefilled oral syringes to about 3,000 hospitals nationwide. It opened its doors in 2006, eight years after NECC opened.
There is no recall of Ameridose products.
