iStock/Thinkstock(BOSTON) — Barry Cadden, the owner and head pharmacist of the now-defunct New England Compounding Center (NECC), has been sentenced by a federal judge to 9 years in prison for his role in a deadly nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.
More than 750 patients who received injections of an NECC-manufactured steroid were diagnosed with the fungal infection in 2012. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64 of those patients in nine states died, making it the largest public health crisis ever caused by a pharmaceutical product.
Cadden, 50, was convicted of 57 charges in March, including racketeering and fraud, but was found not guilty by a federal jury on 25 counts of murder.
Prosecutors urged U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns to sentence Cadden to 35 years in prison, while his attorneys recommended 3 years.
“Barry Cadden put profits over patients,” said Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb for the District of Massachusetts in a statement. “He used NECC to perpetrate a massive fraud that harmed hundreds of people. Mr. Cadden knew that he was running his business dishonestly, but he kept doing it anyway to make sure the payments kept rolling in. Now he will have to pay for his crimes.”
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