On Thursday, Federal authorities at the Boston airport arrested a pharmacist that was linked to the meningitis outbreak that occurred in 2012, killing over 60 people and affecting hundreds of others all over the United States.
Glenn Adam Chin was apprehended at the Logan International Airport in Boston when he as he attempted to board a flight out of the country and to leave for Hong Kong. During the outbreak, Chin was working at the New England Compounding Center informing him, Massachusetts. This is now bankrupt firm produced in the contaminated drugs that started "the most deadly meningitis outbreak in US history" where over 750 patients in 20 different states came down with fungal infections after receiving the tainted methylprednisolone acetate injections.
During his arrest, Chin was charged with mail fraud for allegedly shipping a batch of the contaminated MPA to the Michigan Pain Specialists. After being assured that the drug was supposedly safe to use on humans, the doctors in this facility were able to inject the drug to nearly 650 patients, more than a third of which fell sick and, of that number, 15 eventually died. Based on the arrest affidavit that was filed by the Food And Drug Administration, Chin was responsible for supervising the maintenance of NECC's rooms, making sure that they were sterile and clean. He also oversaw more than a dozen pharmacy technicians and pharmacists, as well as being involved in the compounding of the company's steroid solutions. Investigators found out that, not only was Chin aware of the unsanitary practices within the company, including improper safety testing and inadequate equipment sterilization, he also actively tried covering up for these shortcuts by instructing his subordinates to fill out logs fraudulently. He also instructed employees to label MPA vials as "injectable."
Criminal investigations implicating Chin and his associates from NECC have been ongoing but, after learning of Chin's plans to leave the country, Federal prosecutors decided to charge and arrest him before he could escape jurisdiction.
