2nd Mass. pharmacy is closed

Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo of the state Department of Public Health said inspectors went to the Waltham location of Rhode Island-based Infusion Resource last week and found significant issues with the environment in which drugs were being mixed.

The company was inspected when it first opened in December 2009 and there had been no complaints since. She said the manager of record at the company was a former employee at Ameridose, which is owned by the same people who ran the New England Compounding Center, the company linked to the meningitis outbreak.

She would not identify the drugs or say what specific issues investigators found at Infusion Resource, but she said they were concerned about sterility. The company mixes sterile injectable drugs for people who have been released from hospitals.

The company has agreed to contact its 40 patients and their doctors and ask them to return any unused medication. Biondolillo said there is no indication any medication the company compounded is unsafe. She said the company also had an area to administer intravenous drugs, which it was not licensed to do. She said the company voluntarily surrendered its pharmacy license last weekend.

The surprise inspections started in the wake of a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, that has sickened more than 300 people, including 23 who have died, in 17 states.

The outbreak has been linked to a steroid made by the New England Compounding Center and taken mainly for back pain. Compounding pharmacies like NECC custom mix solutions in doses or forms generally not commercially available.

Dr. Lauren Smith, interim commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, said Sunday that the department is adding five inspectors to help review all compounding pharmacies in the state.