Saturday, October 13, 2012

Meningitis-linked firm sold drugs without requiring prescriptions: emails

By Toni Clarke and Aaron Pressman | Reuters2 hrs 31 mins ago


BOSTON (Reuters) - The drug-mixing company at the heart of a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak solicited bulk orders from physicians and failed to require proof of individual patient prescriptions as required under state regulations, emails to a customer show.
Reuters reviewed more than a dozen emails that show the New England Compounding Center, contrary to Massachusetts regulations, sold drugs without requiring physicians to supply individual patient prescriptions.
The customer confirmed that NECC supplied the clinic with drugs without patient names or prescriptions.
NECC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, distributed thousands of vials of a contaminated steroid that has put 14,000 people at risk of contracting meningitis and killed 14 people.
The emails support assertions made this week by state pharmacy regulators that the compounding firm, which was authorized to deliver products only in response to patient-specific prescriptions, had violated its license in Massachusetts.
The emails also indicate that NECC referred business to a sister company, Ameridose LLC, despite a statement by Ameridose earlier this week that the two operated separately.

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