Sept. 30 Hearing Set for Meningitis Fee Requests

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Sept. 30 date has been set for a hearing on fees and expenses totaling some $17 million in the bankruptcy case of the New England Compounding Center, a defunct Massachusetts drug compounding firm.
Filings today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court set the hearing for 2 p.m. on Sept 30 before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff at the federal court building in Springfield, Mass.
The pending fee requests include more than $10 million by the trustee who oversaw the bankruptcy proceedings and his law firm.
In the most recent request, the firm of Verdolino and Lowey, is seeking $128,177 in fees and $1,323.77 in expenses. The firm, which charged hourly rates averaging $276.36 but ranging up to $415, provided financial and accounting services.
NECC, which filed for bankruptcy in late 2013, has been blamed for a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis which sickened 778 patients, killing 76 of them.
Moore has been credited with amassing more than $200 million from the owners of NECC, related firms, insurance carriers and service providers for NECC. Most of that total will go to victims or their survivors, but legal and other fees of the bankruptcy will be paid first.
Moore has expressed hope that victims will begin collecting payments before the end of the calendar year. Some victims may later get additional payments from pending suits against other parties, including treatment  centers where they were injected with fungus tainted steroids from NECC.
A federal grand jury has indicted 14 owners and employees of NECC following a lengthy criminal probe of the outbreak. Criminal trials are set to begin in April 2016.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com