Compounding Pharmacists Defend Their Trade After Meningitis Outbreak

By SYDNEY LUPKIN

Oct. 22, 2012

Chuck Leiter remembers getting an earful from his father after he helped a young Barry Cadden and his wife set up their booth at a conference for pharmacists in the late 1990s.
"My dad almost killed me," said Leiter, who works with his father at Leiter's Compounding Pharmacy in San Jose, Calif. The Caddens had an unsavory reputation. "I knew they were trouble," he said.
Cadden was the president of the New England Compounding Center, which shut down this month after it was blamed for distributing tainted steroid injections that caused deadly fungal meningitis, killing 23 people to date. Up to 14,000 patients could be at risk, and 294 cases have been reported. Another three people came down with joint infections.

Full Story