Pharmacist on Trial for Murder in Deadly Meningitis Outbreak

(BOSTON) — An attorney for a Massachusetts pharmacist charged in a deadly meningitis outbreak urged jurors Tuesday not to be swayed by their emotions while prosecutors argued the man’s actions demonstrated a “shocking disregard” for human life. Glenn Chin, the supervisory pharmacist at the now-closed New England Compounding Center, is on trial for second-degree murder and mail fraud under federal racketeering law for his role in the 2012 outbreak caused by tainted steroid injections that killed 76 people and sickened hundreds of others. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Varghese told jurors Chin instructed staff to use expired ingredients, falsify documents and neglect cleaning to get the products out the door as quickly as possible. Chin also failed to properly sterilize the drugs, shipped products before they were tested and ignored findings of mold and bacteria in the clean rooms, Varghese said. “Glenn Chin knew better,” Varghese said during his opening statement. “He knew with what he was doing there was a reasonable likelihood that people were going to die, and he did it anyways.” Chin, who was wearing a dark suit and glasses, took notes and sometimes shook his head while Varghese spoke to the panel of 11 women and four men who will hear the case, which is expected to last several weeks. Chin’s attorneys are hoping to place the blame on the co-founder of the compounding pharmacy. Unlike regular drugstores, compounding p...
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