Key Defendant Back in Compounding Business

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The prosecution's star witness in a case involving a deadly compounded drug outbreak is back in the employ of another drug compounding firm despite his guilty plea to conspiracy charges.
Robert Ronzio, the onetime sales director for a now defunct Massachusetts drug firm, is a vice president for Florida based KRS Global Biotechnology. That firm compounds drugs by the thousands for use in health facilities.
Ronzio was sales manager for the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak which has taken the lives of over 100 patients. As part of a plea deal following a two year probe of that outbreak Ronzio entered a guilty plea to conspiring to defraud the federal government for his role at NECC.
His sentencing has been re-scheduled several times and has now been postponed indefinitely.
Ronzio was the prosecution's lead witness in the trials of a dozen of his former NECC colleagues including NECC's part owner and president, who is now serving a 14.5 year federal prison sentence.
Court records show Ronzio, as a condition of release after his indictment, was barred from working in the pharmaceutical industry unless his employer was informed of the federal charges. The conditions also indicate the U.S. Attorney would be involved in any such employment arrangement.
Peter Horstmann, Ronzio's attorney, declined comment when asked whether the U.S. Attorney had approved Ronzio's employment in Florida. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, Mass. also declined comment.
While NECC was shuttered by federal regulators KRS has had its own problems, including a massive recall due to possible contamination of its sterile products. That forced the company into bankruptcy and its recent sale to a new owner.
KRS is licensed as a 503B U.S. Food and Drug Administration drug producer, a new category created by Congress in the wake of the fungal meningitis outbreak.
Records in the KRS 2020 bankruptcy in federal court in Florida show Ronzio was listed as a priority creditor seeking unpaid wages of $32,807. He also was listed with a $5,264 "trade debt."
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