The trial of two pharmacists who oversaw a compounding center deemed responsible for a deadly meningitis outbreak continues this week, with a government doctor comparing the crisis to the devastating Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Dr. Benjamin Park, a division chief at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, testified on Tuesday at the trial of New England Compounding Center owner and president Barry Cadden. Cadden is facing 25 counts of murder for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, which resulted from steroids compounded by NECC. He is also facing racketeering charges. The outbreak killed 64 people and sickened over 700 others.
Read more: Pharmacists from Fatal Meningitis Outbreak Facing Trial
“In my 15 years of being at the CDC investigating outbreaks, the only thing that rises to this level was the Ebola outbreak,” he said. “This one was here in our country, and it was entirely preventable.”
Prosecutors say that the center used expired ingredients and did not follow cleanliness standards, which resulted in the tainted steroid injections. State officials and the FDA have released reports detailing the unsatisfactory conditions in the facility’s cleanroom, including puddles of water and dirty mats on the floor.
“I remember feeling very scared,” Park said, speaking about a “massive effort” between state and local health officials to contact the potential 14,000 victims of the moldy injections. Park testified that authorities reduced the death rate to 5 percent or less after they discovered the cause of the infections.
Cadden’s lawyer, Bruce Singal, maintain his client’s innocence. He told the jury that, while Cadden oversaw the company’s operations, but didn’t work in the cleanroom or mix the drugs. Singal produced emails that Cadden had sent to a cleaning company, scolding them for not following sterility guidelines when cleaning the cleanroom.
The trial is expected to last several more months. Former NECC head pharmacist Glenn Chin will go to trial once Cadden’s is over. Chin is also facing numerous murder charges for his alleged role in the outbreak.
