An owner and four former employees of a now-shuttered Framingham compounding pharmacy were convicted Thursday of federal charges related to a 2012 meningitis outbreak that’s killed more than 100 people who took tainted drugs made at the facility, authorities said.

Travis Anderson “5 people convicted of federal charges in Framingham compounding pharmacy case” Boston Globe (2018)

To say that the crimes of the  New England Compounding Center have changed the very regulations for compounding pharmacy in this country is no overstatement. For those of us in other  regulated industries, and for those in quality in other fields, this is an important case to reflect on.

According to prosecutors, pharmacists “knowingly made and sold numerous drugs” in an unsafe manner. “The unsafe manner included, among other things, the pharmacists’ failure to properly sterilize NECC’s drugs, failure to properly test NECC’s drugs for sterility, and failure to wait for test results before sending the drugs to customers. They also approved the use of expired drug ingredients, and the mislabeling of those drugs in order to deceive customers.”

Travis Anderson “5 people convicted of federal charges in Framingham compounding pharmacy case” Boston Globe (2018)

It is important to reflect that we in Quality, that everyone in our industries, has a commitment to the health and well-being of our customers that is nothing less than a moral imperative. That the imperative question for us and our organizations is always “Have I done enough to ensure the best quality and safety.”

There have now been 11 employees or executives of the drug compounding company convicted of ignoring safety precautions and forging documents to allow contaminated drugs to be manufactured and shipped.

Shira Schoenberg “Former compounding center employees convicted in deadly meningitis outbreak ” Boston Business Journal (2018)