Prosecutors Seek 6.5 Year NECC Sentence

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Charging that he played a critical role in a fraudulent scheme, federal prosecutors are asking for a 6.5 year jail sentence for a licensed pharmacist who worked as a supervisor at the company that caused a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.
In a 14-page filing today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass., government lawyers charged that Gene Svirskiy abused a position of public trust in his role at the New England Compounding Center the company that caused the 2012 outbreak. Over 100 patients who were injected with NECC steroids have died while hundreds of others were sickened.
Prosecutors said that a substantial sentence was necessary to serve as a deterrent to other licensed pharmacists.
Svirskiy was convicted late last year after an eight week trial of racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud and violations of the federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. He was one of 14 indicted by a federal grand jury in late 2014 following a two year probe of the outbreak.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Strachan and George Varghese wrote that while Svirskiy was not as culpable as the lead co-defendants, Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin, his criminal actions were an essential part of the conspiracy.
Cadden, NECC's president and part owner, is serving a nine year sentence while Chin, a supervising pharmacist, is serving an eight year sentence.
Svirskiy's lawyers had filed a recommendation that he be sentenced to only one year of home confinement.
Svirskiy, the prosecutors'filing states, conspired with Cadden, Chin and others "to fraudulently produce and sell substandard drugs."
The charges against Svirskiy do not relate to the steroids that caused the outbreak but to other drugs shipped by NECC. They include an anti-cancer drug that was shipped even though the main ingredient had expired five years before shipment and an untested and contaminated antibiotic solution for use in surgeries.
The filing cites Svirskiy's role overseeing a pharmacy technician who had surrendered his certification.
Svirskiy knew Scott Connolly lost his certification and instructed him not to use his own name on company records, prosecutors charged. In addition he instructed Connolly to leave the clean room when
regulators were at the facility.
Prosecutors said Svirskiy should get an enhanced sentence because he was a manager or supervisor and he abused a position of public trust. Additional enhancements are justified, they argued, despite the recommendation of federal probation officials.
Those factors include the large number of victims, the amount of loss caused by fraud and a conscious or reckless disregard of the risk of death or serious injury to victims.
"The seriousness of Svirskiy's crimes should not be overlooked," the prosecutors concluded. "A sentence for Svirskiy must provide adequate deterrence to licensed pharmacists in the future."
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