Some NECC Drugs Super-Potent, Im-Potent

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

BOSTON--Tests on one New England Compounding Center drug showed it had more than 6,000 percent of one ingredient while analysis of another drug showed it had no traceable amount of the primary component.
That's what an official of an Oklahoma drug testing firm told jurors last week as the second week of testimony came to a close in the trial of Glenn Chin, who is facing charges of racketeering and second degree murder.
Chin, 49, who was a supervising pharmacist for NECC, has paid close attention to the testimony, often taking detailed notes and conversing with his attorneys. He has displayed virtually no emotion.
The test results on NECC products were detailed by Tommy Means from Analytic Research Laboratories, the company NECC hired to run tests on samples of its drugs.
Chin was charged in late 2014 following a two year federal probe of the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak caused by fungus ridden drugs shipped from NECC's Framingham offices to health providers across the country.
Means' Friday testimony was similar though briefer than he gave in the trial of co-defendant Barry J. Cadden, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence following his conviction on racketeering and mail fraud charges. He was acquitted of the second degree murder charges.
Cadden was the president and part owner of NECC. While Cadden's lawyers continually sought to pin the blame on Chin, Chin's lawyers are now returning the favor by continually referring to Cadden, even noting the comments by prosecutors in the Cadden case who repeatedly told jurors NECC was "Cadden's baby." Those same Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Amanda Strachan and George Varghese, are handling the Chin case.
Though there are numerous parallels in the Cadden and Chin cases, there are differences, one imposed by the presiding judge.
 At one point in the Cadden case, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, in a bench conference out of the hearing of jurors, expressed his frustration with the pace and direction of the trial. The transcript of that bench conference was not made public until weeks after it took place.
In contrast, in a brief session last week, also out of the hearing of jurors,  Stearns expressed satisfaction with the way the prosecution has been presenting the case.
Under his orders, time limits have been placed on both the prosecution and defense in the case. Stearns imposed the limits in midst of the Cadden trial, which started in January and ended in late March.
In other testimony last week, hospital administrators from Massachusetts, Virginia and Illinois stated that they were assured that NECC met the highest standards for drug compounders and said they never would have purchased the company's drugs had they known otherwise.
This week's testimony will begin with Philip Sliney, the lead FBI investigator in the NECC investigation.
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