An amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court gives new evidence that officials at Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center began buying steroids from a Massachusetts compounder because it was cheaper, a charge the clinic has consistently denied.
Attached to the complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Nashville is a series of emails
between an official at the clinic and a salesman for the New England Compounding Center, the shuttered drug company blamed for the national outbreak of fungal meningitis.
The details came in a suit filed by a Kentucky man, Leon Bland, and his wife, Carolyn Bland, who was stricken with fungal meningitis after getting a spinal injection at the Nashville neurosurgical center.
Lawyers for the neurosurgery center have vehemently denied that the outpatient center switched to NECC to cut costs and stated last week that the last bill from the previous provider was $6.50 per vial, the same price as NECC.
C.J. Gideon, the outpatient center’s attorney, said in an email Thursday evening that he had not yet seen the amended complaint and could not respond.
In the first email included in Thursday’s filing, dated May 17, 2011, an NECC salesman wrote to the clinic on May 17, 2011, stating that he had spoken to his manager and “he said he really would like to offer you better to earn your business. What price would we need to give you to earn your business?”
Debra Schamberg, the clinic manager, emailed back stating that if he could get the price below $6.50 per vial, “then we can talk.”
Three days later the salesman emailed back offering a price equivalent to $6.50.
Following that exchange, according to the amended complaint, NECC’s then-current supplier raised its price from $6.49 to $8.95 per vial.
“Saint Thomas was not willing to pay $8.95 per vial of methylprednisolone acetate,” the complaint states.
In a June 10, 2011, email, Schamberg wrote that if the pricing is still $6.50 per vial, “I am willing to do business with you. Let me know what is needed.”
The same day, an exhibit shows, she placed an order for 700 vials.
The suit does not name NECC, which is in bankruptcy, as a defendant, but it does name the company owners and a series of affiliated firms, including a sister drug company, Ameridose LLC.
The amended complaint notes that on Wednesday a bankruptcy judge in Massachusetts issued an order concluding that NECC is insolvent and was insolvent at the time it filed for bankruptcy late last year.
Under the state product liability statute, if the producer of a defective product is bankrupt, the sellers of a defective product can be sued.
Lawyers for Saint Thomas Outpatient say the facility did not meet the definition of a seller, while lawyers for the plaintiffs contend the opposite.
Contact Walter F. Roche Jr. at 615-259-8086 or wroche@tennessean.com.
Attached to the complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Nashville is a series of emails
between an official at the clinic and a salesman for the New England Compounding Center, the shuttered drug company blamed for the national outbreak of fungal meningitis.The details came in a suit filed by a Kentucky man, Leon Bland, and his wife, Carolyn Bland, who was stricken with fungal meningitis after getting a spinal injection at the Nashville neurosurgical center.
Lawyers for the neurosurgery center have vehemently denied that the outpatient center switched to NECC to cut costs and stated last week that the last bill from the previous provider was $6.50 per vial, the same price
as NECC.C.J. Gideon, the outpatient center’s attorney, said in an email
Thursday evening that he had not yet seen the amended complaint and could not respond.In the first email included in Thursday’s filing, dated May 17, 2011, an NECC salesman wrote to the clinic on May 17, 2011, stating that he had spoken to his manager and “he said he really would like to offer you better to earn your business
. What price would we need to give you to earn your business?”Debra Schamberg, the clinic manager, emailed back stating that if he could get the price below $6.50 per vial, “then we can talk.”
Three days later the salesman emailed back offering a price equivalent to $6.50.
Following that exchange, according to the amended complaint, NECC’s then-current supplier raised its price from $6.49 to $8.95 per vial.
“Saint Thomas was not willing to pay $8.95 per vial of methylprednisolone acetate,” the complaint states.
In a June 10, 2011, email, Schamberg wrote that if the pricing is still $6.50 per vial, “I am willing to do business with you. Let me know what is needed.”
The same day, an exhibit shows, she placed an order for 700 vials.
The suit does not name NECC, which is in bankruptcy, as a defendant, but it does name the company owners and a series of affiliated firms, including a sister drug company, Ameridose LLC.
The amended complaint notes that on Wednesday a bankruptcy judge in Massachusetts issued an order concluding that NECC is insolvent and was insolvent at the time it filed for bankruptcy late last year.
Under the state product liability statute, if the producer of a defective product is bankrupt, the sellers of a defective product can be sued.
Lawyers for Saint Thomas Outpatient say the facility did not meet the definition of a seller, while lawyers for the plaintiffs contend the opposite.
Contact Walter F. Roche Jr. at 615-259-8086 or wroche@tennessean.com.
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