NECC trial: Fake celeb names used
The New England Compounding Center was using faked prescriptions written out to “Donald Trump,” “Tom Brady,” “Bud Weiser” and “Bill Clinton” in a scam to dodge regulators, and kept numerous drugs long after their expiration date, testimony in the murder case against CEO Barry Cadden indicated yesterday.
Prosecutors seek to show that Cadden, 50, and NECC were cutting corners, dodging regulations and endangering lives in the months leading up to the national fungal meningitis outbreak and the deaths of 64 patients attributed to NECC’s moldriddled methylprednisolone acetate shots for relieving back and joint pain.
Cadden, who faces life imprisonment if convicted of murder, racketeering, fraud and misbranding drugs, is accused of having lists of individual names on hand so he could claim NECC was a pharmacy filling prescriptions, and therefore subject to less oversight than a drug manufacturer.
The celebrity names and several made-up identities, some lewd, were among the patient names jurors saw scribbled yesterday on drug order forms from clinics in Texas and Nebraska. Special Agent Frank Lombardo acknowledged under crossexamination by defense attorney Bruce Singal that the names were filled in by doctors ordering the drugs, and while NECC reviewed and approved the orders, they were not signed by Cadden.
However, in a May 21, 2012, email that was shown to the jury, Cadden warned NECC employees of future prescriptions they processed, “All names must resemble real names — not obviously false names! (Mickey Mouse).”
Lombardo, a criminal investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, testified the Methotrexate, an injectable medication for pediatric cancer patients that was marked for disposal in 2007, was among many outdated drugs and chemicals found in late 2012 in a New England Compounding Center “cleaning room” where drugs were manufactured.