Pharmacist Guilty of Fraud, Not Murder, in US Meningitis Outbreak

Pharmacist Guilty of Fraud, Not Murder, in US Meningitis Outbreak
Former New England Compounding Center supervisory pharmacist Glenn Chin enters the federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., Sept. 19, 2017. (REUTERS/ Nate Raymond)
Reuters
10/25/2017
Updated:
10/25/2017

BOSTON—A Massachusetts pharmacist was convicted of racketeering and fraud charges but was cleared of murder on Wednesday for his role in a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 76 people and sickened hundreds more across the United States.

Glenn Chin, a former supervisory pharmacist at the now-defunct New England Compounding Center where the mold-tainted steroids that caused the outbreak were produced, was found guilty by a federal jury in Boston.

Jurors found the 49-year old guilty of racketeering and mail fraud charges but did not find that prosecutors had proved he committed second-degree murder in connection with death of 25 people who were injected with the steroids.

The verdict came after a separate jury in March found Barry Cadden, NECC’s co-founder and former president, guilty of racketeering and fraud charges but cleared him of murder. Cadden, 50, was sentenced in June to nine years in prison.

Prosecutors say that 778 people nationwide were sickened after being injected with contaminated steroids produced in unsanitary conditions at Framingham, Massachusetts-based NECC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012.