New England Compounding Center

New England Compounding Center (NECC) is a compounding pharmacy founded in 1998, along with its sister company Ameridose. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, NECC was a family-run business owned by Barry J. Cadden, his wife, Lisa Cadden (née Conigliaro) and her brother Gregory Conigliaro.

2012 outbreak
The company became the center of a scandal resulting from a meningitis outbreak that started in September, 2012. NECC recalled more than 2,000 products after distributing 17,000 vials of methylprednisolone for injection contaminated with fungi to 23 states.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations dictate that compounding pharmacies like NECC combine, mix, or alter ingredients only to create specific drugs for individual patients. Massachusetts state regulators reported NECC was licensed only to prepare individual patient prescriptions. The company, however, shipped drugs to multiple states, and may have been operating outside of their legal boundaries, authorities said. Doctors, hospitals, and clinics had turned to compounding pharmacies like NECC because they often charge much lower prices than the major manufacturers.

On December 21, 2012, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing less than $2.34 million in debts. Following the bankruptcy, a Reuters investigation into financial filings revealed company payments exceeding $22 million to the top executives and private equity investors in 2012.