Federal agents raided the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a widespread meningitis outbreak that has killed 16 people and sickened more than 200 others, federal prosecutorssaid Tuesday.
Agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration searched the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in the Boston suburb of Framingham, with officers from the local police department providing support, Framingham police said.
The raid took place as calls came for an even wider probe into whether the once-obscure pharmacy may have broken federal laws dealing with controlled substances, and as additional meningitis cases were announced.
Carmen Ortiz, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement, “I can confirm that this office and our law enforcement partners are investigating allegations concerning the New England Compounding Center.”
Ortiz said it was “entirely premature” to speculate about what might be uncovered.
A lawyer for NECC said the raid was unnecessary and that “asking would have produced the same result.”
“It is difficult to understand the purpose of this search since we have been clear that (NECC) would provide, and has provided, anything requested. We’ve been clear that warrants weren’t needed,” Paul Cirel, of the firm Collora LLP in Boston, said in a statement.
The entrance to NECC’s headquarters – a squat, non-descript brown brick building – was cordoned off with yellow “caution” tape.
An officer with the Framingham motorcycle unit guarded the front door. Lights were on inside, and a number of people, including uniformed agents, were seen moving around inside the facility into the night.
The FDA’s criminal unit, the Office of Criminal Investigations, is a team of agents with specialized knowledge and training to investigate violations of food and drug laws. It pursues about 1,200 criminal cases each year.
The raid came as the U.S. meningitis outbreak is widening. A 16th death was announced on Tuesday, a patient from southwest Virginia, that state’s Department of Health said in a statement.
Overall, there are 231 confirmed meningitis cases, according to Tuesday’s tally from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase of 19 on the day.
The FDA on Monday widened its investigation of the cause of the fungal meningitis outbreak to other drugs made by NECC.
Nearly 14,000 people nationwide are at risk of infection because they received injections from suspect steroid medications shipped to 76 facilities in 23 states.
All but eight of the 23 states that received suspect medications from the Massachusetts specialist pharmacy have reported at least one case of fungal meningitis.
Meningitis is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include headache, fever and nausea. Fungal meningitis is not contagious.
The states reporting cases of meningitis are Tennessee, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas, Idaho, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and Florida.
