Health officials have linked a deadly outbreak of meningitis back to a pharmaceutical company. It’s believed the New England Compounding Center distributed contaminated shots of steroids that led to a meningitis outbreak in the U.S.
So far, the outbreak has sickened 440 people and caused at least 32 deaths, according to USA Today. Authorities say as many as 14,000 people were given these shots, mostly for back pain.
Lawmakers demand answers
Lawmakers called FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to a hearing to get answers.
“After a tragedy like this, the first question we all ask is: could this have been prevented?” said U.S. Representative Cliff Stearns of Florida. “The answer here appears to be yes.”
According to documents, the FDA had problems with the Massachusetts company in the past. A New York hospital filed a complaint about contaminated steroid shots in 2002. Doctors there believed the shots led to two cases of meningitis. It was the same drug that is at the center of the current outbreak.
Hamburg told lawmakers the reports did show ‘serious problems’ at the New England Compounding Center but said the FDA had to defer to the state of Massachusetts to handle the problems.
“The challenge we have today is that there is a patchwork of legal authorities that oversee the action we can take,” said Hamburg, who was nominated to head the FDA by President Obama in 2009.
More oversight needed
The head of New England Compounding Center was also called to the hearing, but invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to comment.
Hamburg urged Congress to pass tougher legislation that would help police problems like this, saying companies like New England Compounding Center operate between state and federal laws.
“In light of growing evidence of threats to the public health, the administration urges Congress to strengthen standards for non-traditional compounding,” Hamburg told lawmakers.
