Trial date set for pharmacist charged in 2012 Michigan fungal meningitis outbreak case

By DeJanay Booth-Singleton

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    DETROIT, Michigan (WWJ) — A Massachusetts man who is charged with murder in a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak that struck Michigan is heading to trial later this year.

Glenn Chin, 56, of Canton, Massachusetts, will appear in court on Nov. 4, 2024, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s office. He is charged with 11 counts of second-degree murder.

Officials said Chin worked as a supervising pharmacist at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, which compounded and produced the steroid methylprednisolone. Eleven patients at the Michigan Pain Specialists Clinic in Livingston County were given epidural injections of the drug, resulting in their deaths. State officials determined the drug was contaminated.

“Eleven Michiganders tragically lost their lives as a result of a lack of concern for patient safety,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “My department looks forward to finally seeking justice for the victims and their families in court.”

The outbreak resulted in a total of 64 deaths in the United States.

Barry Cadden, the owner of the compounding center, was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in Livingston County’s 44th Circuit Court for his role in the outbreak. He was also charged with 11 counts of second-degree murder.

Officials said Cadden “disregarded sterility procedures in the compounding of sterile medications and ran his business in an egregiously unsafe manner, endorsing laboratory directives wherein cleaning records and scientific testing results were regularly forged and fabricated,” according to a news release.

In federal court, he faced 57 criminal charges and was sentenced to 14.5 years in prison. His sentencing in Michigan will run concurrently with his federal prison sentence.

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