The top executives of New England Compounding Center are likely to be criminally prosecuted on federal charges that carry possible prison sentences, according to former prosecutors who cite the large number of people harmed, allegedly by contaminated steroids made by the Framingham pharmacy.
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, whose Boston office is known for aggressive prosecution of health care companies, acknowledged in a statement last month that she is probing New England Compounding, but has declined further comment. Agents from the US Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations were seen last month combing through the company’s Framingham offices.
Comments
I would like to see more information about Barry Cadden's ties to Sen. Scott Brown and Governor Devall Patrick. I think it is tragic that a paper trail of violations in Framingham was ignored by Mass health officicials. I am betting Mr. Cadden's will still emerge from all of this a wealthy man, habing surely insulated himself from his businesses.
Whatever happens here will do little to address the fundamental problem -- the crazy quilt of varying regulation by indivual states, and the FDA comforter with the huge hole in the center ground out by the mortar and pestle of the ever-expanding compounding pharmacy industry.
Perhaps or perhaps not: holding executives criminally liable for deaths directly resulting from their own negligence is essentially an experiment that has never been tried in this industry.
And compounding pharmacies, unlike Merck or Pfizer, are small enough to lack the resources necessary to outlast public anger through legal delay. It is at least conceivable that jail time will exert a mild deterrent effect on this form of manslaughter.
They should also consider sending some of the MA Gov overseers who were aware but did nothing to jail.
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"Conviction carries a maximum one-year prison sentence."
....as in...
But in this case, the former prosecutors say the government is likely to seek jail time for New England Compounding’s top executives under a seldom-used provision of the law known as the responsible corporate officer doctrine.
This doctrine allows federal prosecutors to hold a company’s executives criminally responsible for wrongdoing of employees, even if the executives did not participate in or know anything about the criminal activity. Conviction carries a maximum one-year prison sentence.
The top executives should be charged with something akin to negligent manslaughter and do some hard time. Any state regulators who turned a blind eye should be charged with crimes as well. One year is no where near enough prison time.