Pharmaceutical company NECC's Framingham, Mass., headquarters. | REUTERS Pharmacy owner takes Fifth

An owner of the New England compounding pharmacy linked to the lethal meningitis outbreak took the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday as a House panel opened the first hearing into one of the worst episodes of contaminated drugs in modern U.S. history.

So far, the tainted steroid injections have been linked to 32 deaths and more than 438 illnesses, with the toll rising.


Barry Cadden, an owner of the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, appeared at the hearing of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and repeatedly declined to answer questions from either the Republicans or Democrats. He had appeared under subpoena.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the outgoing chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said it was “one of the worst public health disasters ever caused by a contaminated drug in this country.”

“After a tragedy like this, the first question we all ask is: Could this have been prevented? … [T]he answer appears to be yes.” Stearns pledged, “We will get to the bottom of this so that an outbreak like this never happens again.”

The hearing began on a bipartisan and personal note, as many members of the subcommittee hearing mentioned people from either their districts or states who had been sickened or killed in the outbreak of fungal meningitis.

NECC is in the Massachusetts district of Democratic Rep. Ed Markey — the first lawmaker to introduce legislation to increase FDA authority, especially over large-scale compounding facilities. He held a press conference before the hearing featuring a victim from Baltimore.

Joyce Lovelace, the widow of a judge who died after receiving a tainted injection, was the first witness to testify. She had harsh words for the officials who were supposed to prevent such outbreaks.

“Their lack of attention to their duties cost my husband his life,” she said of the regulators. “If you don’t do your jobs, if may not do anything to you, but you are affecting human lives.”

Committee members pledged they would work together to address the problem.

“I think one of the problems in part is just sloppiness on the part of the Massachusetts [regulators] and the FDA and also this gray area” of regulatory authority,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). Compounding pharmacies are regulated by a patchwork of state and federal authorities.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:28 a.m. on November 14, 2012.