2nd Checks Sent to 1,760 Outbreak Victims

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Boston, Mass.-The trustee of a fund for victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak says that second checks have been approved for 1,760 claimants, according to documents filed today in U.S. District Court.
According to the report from Lynne F. Riley, a total of $136.6 million in victims' payments have now been approved. In addition to the second payments that total includes 1,836 initial checks to victims deemed qualified.
The payments are coming from funds amassed in the bankruptcy of the New England Compounding Center, the now defunct Massachusetts firm blamed for the outbreak.
Riley reported that all appeals have now been processed either by Epiq, the company hired to administer the fund or the federal judge assigned to handle appeals. As a result a total of 2,036 claims have been fully or partially approved, 41 were deemed invalid and two were withdrawn.
In an earlier report Riley stated that a third payment to victims will come at a later date following the resolution of tax issues.
In addition to the payments from the so-called national settlement, Riley said that 226 checks have been approved for payment from funds derived from settlements with individual clinics where victims were injected with fungus contaminated steroids.
Still other clinic settlements, including one in Nashville, are being handled separately and not by Riley.
In another filing today attorneys asked a federal judge to approve a payment of $26,129 to the company administering the Nashville settlement. Other details of the Nashville settlement with the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center have been filed under seal.
The 2012 outbreak sickened some 778 patients in at least 20 states. Seventy-six of those have died.
The report comes as a supervising pharmacist for NECC is in trial on racketeering and second degree murder charges.
Testimony continued today in the trial of Glenn Chin. A codefendant, Barry J. Cadden, is already serving a nine-year federal prison sentence. He was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud but cleared of 25 counts of second degree murder.
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