Ameridose, tied to pharmacy in meningitis outbreak, lays off staff

The exterior of Ameridose Sterile Admixing Services, a pharmacy connected to the New England Compounding Center linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak. / AP

A Massachusetts company with the same founders as a drug compounding company tied to a deadly meningitis outbreak will lay off nearly all its employees amid its prolonged closure for inspection.

Ameridose of Westborough, Mass. employees were notified of the layoffs Thursday.

A company spokesman says the notice affects 650 employees at Ameridose and 140 employees at its marketing and support arm. He says a small number will be retained amid an ongoing product recall.

Ameridose issued a voluntary recall on Oct. 31 of all its products in circulation following an on-site investigation by the Food and Drug Administration, after which the agency told the company it wanted improvements in Ameridose's sterility testing process.

• Ameridose, company linked to New England Compounding Center, issues recall
• Mass. Board of Pharmacy director fired for not investigating July complaint of meningitis-linked firm
• Congress summons FDA over meningitis outbreak

Ameridose LLC says it hopes the layoffs will be temporary.

The company paid its employees since it voluntarily closed for inspection Oct. 10 because of problems at the New England Compounding Center pharmacy, a sister company. The meningitis outbreak has been linked to a steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, made by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), in Framingham, near Boston. A preliminary investigation of the firm found contamination in "clean" areas where drugs were prepared and other questionable sterility practices.

Regulators last week asked Ameridose to remain closed until Nov. 19.

Ameridose was founded in 2006 by Greg Conigliaro and Barry Cadden, who opened the NECC eight years earlier.

An ongoing 19-state fungal meningitis outbreak has sickened 414 people as of Nov. 7, 31 of which have died. Another 10 people have developed joint infections in areas where they received the steroid injections from the NECC.

[factfind]

Ameridose is an FDA-registered manufacturer, and, as such, does not require prescriptions. It provides admixing and repackaging services to hospital pharmacies. It is a separate company from NECC and has different licensing and operations.

[BirdieMan603]

oops their orders

[BirdieMan603]

Ameridose does not compound drugs nor do they manufacture drugs, they repackage drugs only, it's hard to get the complete story from the media.

Ameridose is vital to the healthcare industry, there orders come from Hospitals and all prescriptions are on file. They will reopen very soon.

They are FDA regulated, please don't add misinformation to the piling on of the media

[driver8m3]

Ameridose should never open their doors again. As a pharmacy, they were required to have a written prescription for every drug they "compounded" and sold. I've seen estimates that they've sold 70 millions doses of drug. They surely do not have 70 million prescriptions laying around the office.

All prescription drug products manufactured (as opposed to compounded) in the US require FDA approval. You cannot sell a prescription drug product in this country if the FDA has not approved it. The FDA has never approved a single product from either NECC or Ameridose. Therefore, Ameridose and NECC were manufacturing unapproved drug products.