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Lawyer: Executive blamed in meningitis outbreak not to blame

Lawyer: Executive blamed in meningitis outbreak not to blame | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2014, file photo, Barry Cadden leaves the federal courthouse in Boston after a hearing. Jury selection is set to begin in his murder trial Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, in Boston. Cadden is a former top executive and head pharmacist of New England Compounding Center, blamed for a national meningitis outbreak that killed dozens of people in 2012. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File) A

BOSTON – A lawyer for the former president of a compounding pharmacy blamed for a deadly national meningitis outbreak has told jurors that his client isn’t responsible.

Barry Cadden is accused of causing the deaths of 25 people. They died of fungal meningitis in 2012 after receiving contaminated injectable steroids used mainly to treat back pain.

Sixty-four people died and more than 700 were sickened around the country after tainted steroids made by the New England Compounding Center were shipped to pain clinics and hospitals.

In opening statements Monday, Cadden’s lawyer said there were “isolated” instances of human error that led to contaminated drugs being sent out. But he said Cadden wasn’t one of the people who actually made the drug.

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