BOSTON (AP) — The former head of a Massachusetts pharmacy was acquitted Wednesday of murder allegations but convicted of racketeering and other crimes in a meningitis outbreak that was traced to fungus-contaminated drugs and killed 64 people across the country. Cadden, president and co-founder of the now-closed New England Compounding Center, was charged with 25 counts of second-degree murder, conspiracy and other offenses under federal racketeering law. “Of course, we’re disappointed that the jurors did not also find that he committed the second-degree murder predicate counts.”

More than 700 people in 20 states were diagnosed with fungal meningitis and other infections after receiving contaminated medication in 2012. “We don’t know what the jury was thinking other than what they said, but to us, the murder counts were the ones that were most important, and those were the ones we were most concerned about,” Cadden’s lead attorney, Bruce Singal, said outside court. BOSTON – The former co-owner and head pharmacist of a Massachusetts company blamed for a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak in 2012 has been found guilty of dozens of racketeering and mail fraud charges, but not guilty of 25 second degree murder counts, reports CBS Boston. The case against the New England Compounding Center stands apart because of the large number of deaths and serious illnesses and because of evidence that Cadden was aware of the unsanitary conditions, said Eric Christofferson, a former federal prosecutor in Boston. Prosecutors said Cadden ran the New England Compounding Center in Framingham in an "extraordinarily dangerous" way by skirting industry regulations on sterility and cleanliness in an effort to push production and make more money.
A jury acquits the former head of the now-closed Massachusetts pharmacy, New England Compounding Center, Barry Cadden, on 25 counts of second-degree murder but convicts him of racketeering and other crimes in a meningitis outbreak that was traced to fungus-contaminated drugs and killed 64 people across the country. Cadden disregarded sanitary conditions to boost production and make more money.