Mass. fires head of board overseeing compounding pharmacies

Officials say James Coffey did not investigate a complaint from Colorado about the center now tied to the meningitis outbreak.

The Wall Street Journal: Pharmacy Board Head Fired Over Meningitis
Massachusetts' health department said Wednesday that it has fired the director of its pharmacy board, after he failed earlier this year to investigate a complaint about the drug-mixing pharmacy recently implicated in a deadly meningitis outbreak. James Coffey, director of the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy, failed to follow up on a complaint from the Colorado pharmacy board accusing New England Compounding Center of illegally selling medicines without a prescription, the Massachusetts health department said in a statement (Rockoff, 11/7).

Reuters:  Massachusetts Pharmacy Board Head Fired After Meningitis Outbreak
Authorities fired the director of the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy after he failed to investigate a complaint against New England Compounding Center, the company at the center of a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, state officials said on Wednesday. NECC is linked to a meningitis outbreak that has infected more than 400 people and caused 31 deaths. ... Coffey was not immediately available for comment (McLaughlin, 11/7).