By Scott Malone
BOSTON, Nov. 28 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Boston on
Wednesday allowed civil suits against the pharmacy at the heart
of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak to proceed and noted that
any criminal case would have priority in gathering evidence.
U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor rejected arguments by
attorneys for the pharmacy, its owners and an affiliate company
to delay the start of civil proceedings until a panel of judges
in Washington meets early next year to determine how to handle
the roughly 70 suits filed in Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Tennessee and Michigan.
"I don't want two or three or four months to go by with
nothing happening," said U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Saylor
at a hearing in Boston.
The needs of lawyers in the civil cases would fall behind
those of federal and state health authorities and any criminal
investigators, he added.
"There may be a grand jury investigation, I don't know, but
there is certainly a potential criminal investigation overlaid
on this," Saylor said.
After federal authorities in October raided the New England
Compounding Center's facilities in Framingham, Massachusetts,
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz confirmed that her office was
investigating the company.
A spokeswoman for Ortiz declined to comment on whether a
grand jury had been convened to hear potential criminal charges
linked to the outbreak, citing secrecy rules surrounding grand
juries.
More than 500 people in 19 states have been infected with
meningitis and 36 have died in the outbreak linked to an
injectible steroid used to treat back pain produced by the New
England Compounding Center, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Saylor said he would consider ordering NECC and its
affiliates to preserve all evidence related to the outbreak, but
noted that the needs of federal investigators from the Food and
Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Agency and state
officials would come first when it came to accessing evidence.
One of NECC's attorneys, Frederick Fern of the New York law
firm Harris & Beach, argued it was unnecessary to order the
company to preserve its records.
"There has to be a showing of actual risk that evidence is
being exfoliated," Fern said in court. "All we have is
speculation."
Saylor last week denied a motion in one of the civil suits
that had sought to freeze the assets of NECC's owners, though he
ordered the company not to make extraordinary cash transfers or
to pay dividends or bonuses to its owners.
NECC suspended its operations and recalled all its products
after its role in the outbreak became clear. Ameridose, a firm
owned by the same people who own NECC, has also shut down
temporarily as investigators review its sterility practices.
A report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released
earlier this month said investigators found bugs and other
unsterile conditions when they inspected Ameridose's
Westborough, Massachusetts facility.
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