Conigliaro Seeks New Hearing, Acquittal

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The former vice president of a rogue drug compounding firm is asking for a formal hearing on his motion for a new trial on charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The motion for the hearing by Gregory Conigliaro was filed today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass.
The request, which is opposed by federal prosecutors, will go before the same judge, Richard G. Stearns, who earlier acquitted Conigliaro only to have the First Circuit Court overturn his decision.
Stearns subsequently, following the appeals court's mandate, found Conigliaro guilty.
In the motion filed today, Conigliaro's lawyer Daniel M. Rabinowitz argued that the appeals court issued its decision "without the benefit of Mr. Conigliaro's full briefing on the arguments for a new trial."
"At the risk of being presumptuous Mr. Conigliaro submits the court would benefit from further oral argument before it issues its ruling on Mr. Conigliaro's motion," the filing concludes."
Conigliaro was vice president of the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, which ultimately took the lives of more than 100 patients.
The now defunct company, based in Framingham, Mass, shipped thousands of vials of drugs heavily contaminated with deadly fungus.
Stearns, in his original ruling, found that it was a legal impossibility for Coniglaro to defraud the FDA because the agency itself was unsure of what if any authority it had over state licensed drug compounders like NECC.
The circuit court rejected that finding and sent the case back to Stearns. In the 61-page ruling on Sept. 27 the court said it could not understand Stearns' reasoning and concluded that he erred as a matter of law.
The appeals court at the same time sent Conigliaro's motion for a new trial back to the district court.
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