Two former NECC pharmacists sentenced
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The former home of New England Compounding Center on Waverly Street in Framingham
Gene Svirskiy of Ashland and Christopher Leary of Shrewsbury, two former clean room pharmacists at New England Compounding Center, were both sentenced this week in federal court in connection with the 2012 nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.
Svirskiy was sentenced to 30 months in prison and one year of supervised release. Leary was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Leary’s first eight months will be in home confinement with electronic monitoring.
They were both convicted in December with three other NECC co-defendants after an eight week trial. Svirskiy was convicted of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, ten counts of mail fraud, and two counts of introduction of adulterated drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead. Leary was convicted of three counts of mail fraud, one count of introduction of adulterated drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead, and two counts of introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.
The investigation revealed that Svirskiy and Leary, among other NECC clean room pharmacists, knowingly manufactured and sold hundreds of drugs that were compromised and made in insanitary conditions. They failed to properly sterilize and test NECC’s drugs and failed to wait for test results before sending the drugs to customers.
They approved the use of expired drug ingredients and mislabeled drugs to deceive customers. Sivirskiy supervised a pharmacy technician with an expired license and had him fraudulently complete paperwork.
In 2012, more than 793 patients in 20 states were diagnosed with fungal infections after receiving injections of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate manufactured by the NECC. More than 100 patients have subsequently died.
Barry Cadden, the former owner and head pharmacist for NECC, was sentenced to nine years in prison and three years of supervised release in June 2017. Glenn Chin, NECC’s former supervisory pharmacist, was sentenced to eight years in prison and two years of supervised revise in January 2018.
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