Compounding Pharmacy Linked to 2002 Illnesses

BY THOMAS M. BURTON

A top Massachusetts health regulator has told a congressional committee that the pharmacy at the center of this fall's deadly meningitis outbreak was also linked to apparent meningitis cases in 2002.
In testimony prepared for a House hearing Wednesday, Dr. Lauren Smith, interim commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said that two patients in 2002 received methylprednisolone from New England Compounding Center and "experienced pain and headaches and were hospitalized with meningitis-like symptoms."