By Kay Lazar
| Globe Staff October 31, 2012Shortly before a national fungal meningitis outbreak was linked to New England Compounding Center, the Framingham company sent customers a “Quality Assurance Report Card” trumpeting the cleanliness of its labs, even as internal tests showed widespread contamination.
Charts sent to customers and
obtained by the Globe show that in the first half of 2012, there were no
instances of contamination exceeding the accepted standard on surfaces in the
“clean rooms,” where the company produced sterile injectable medications such as
the steroid now linked
to 28 deaths.
But during that same period, the
company’s own internal testing showed that 33 surface samples from the clean
rooms contained bacteria or mold at levels requiring corrective action to remove
contamination, according to company records. These test results were disclosed
in a report released Friday by federal investigators.
Pharmacy and laboratory safety consultants said New England Compounding’s
report card, sent to the Globe from a hospital that bought from the pharmacy,
directly contradicts the findings of the company’s internal testing. The
hospital provided the pharmacy report card on the condition it not be
identified.Continue reading the Boston Globe article here
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