A federal court sentenced the former co-owner and vice president of New England Compounding Center — which was ground zero for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 100 people — to one year in prison.
Gregory Conigliaro, 57, was convicted for one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. in 2018, according to a Dec. 1 news release from the Massachusetts Attorney's Office. He will serve one year in prison followed by one year of supervised release.
The now-defunct pharmacy, which operated from 2002 to 2012, hid its operations and made contaminated, moldy steroid drugs in unsanitary conditions.
"Mr. Conigliaro and his co-conspirators repeatedly made the choice to put their greed over patient safety," U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement. "In turn, nearly 800 patients suffered terribly and over 100 died. Today's sentence sends a clear message to healthcare executives — if you lie to regulators, the outcomes can be deadly and we will hold you accountable."
The outbreak was the nation's largest public health crisis caused by a contaminated drug.
Barry Cadden, a pharmacist and former owner of NECC, was sentenced to nine years in prison in June 2017 for his involvement in the outbreak. In 2018, the site's supervisory pharmacist Glenn Chin was sentenced to eight years. Both Mr. Cadden and Mr. Chin were cleared of second-degree murder charges.
In 2019, two more pharmacists at NECC were sentenced for their involvement and violating the state's safe manufacturing rule.