Former NECC Exec Gets Prison In Fatal Meningitis Outbreak

HOPKINTON, MA — A second former New England Compounding Center leader has been sentenced in connection to the fatal 2012 meningitis outbreak that left 100 dead and hundreds more sick, according to federal prosecutors.

Sharon Carter, 58, of Hopkinton, will spend five months in federal prison and one year on supervised release for her role in the outbreak. Carter, NECC's former operations director, was found guilty in 2018 of conspiring to defraud the federal government.

According to federal prosecutors, Carter blocked federal and state oversight of the Framingham lab's drug dispensing activities.

The meningitis outbreak happened when NECC shipped a steroid used for back pain called preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) before the drug was tested for sterility. During the outbreak, 753 people in 20 states developed a fungal meningitis after taken the impure drug.

Former NECC owner Barry Cadden, 54, a former Wrentham resident, was re-sentenced in 2021 to 14 years in prison. Gregory Conigliaro, Cadden's brother-in-law and an NECC co-owner, was sentenced to one year on Dec. 1 for conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.