Two NECC Pharmacists Charged in Michigan

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Two pharmacist already serving federal jail terms have been charged with second degree murder in the deaths of 11 Michigan patients who died in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Charged were Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin, who are now serving terms in separate prisons in Pennsylvania.
The pair had also been charged with eight of those murders in a 2014 federal indictment, but juries later cleared them of those charges. They were convicted, however, on racketeering and mail fraud charges.
In the Friday filing Chin and Cadden were charged in the deaths of Donna Kruzich; Paula Brent; Lyn Laperriere; Sally Roe; Mary Plettl; Gayle Gibson; Patricia Malafouris; Emma Todd; Jennie Barth; Ruth Madouse and Karine Baxter.
The deaths of Malafouris, Barth and Madoose were not included in the federal charges.
Chin is serving an eight year term at a federal prison in Allenwood, PA.,while Cadden is serving a nine year sentence in Loretto, PA
Chin was a supervising pharmacist at the New England Compounding Center, while Cadden was president and part owner. NECC has been blamed for shipping thousands of vials of fungus contaminated steroids to health facilities in 20 states, including Michigan.
Earlier this month a federal jury convicted five other NECC employees on racketeering and mail fraud charges. They are scheduled to be sentenced in March by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns. The five were not charged with second degree murder and they were not involved in producing the deadly steroids.
The Michigan charges were brought Friday in Livingston Circuit Court by Attorney General Bill Schuette.
The 2012 outbreak sickened some 793 patients and more than 100 of them died. Michigan was among the hardest hit along with Virginia, Indiana and Tennessee.