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Pharmacy co-founder acquitted of murder charges in meningitis outbreak

Posted at 10:07 AM, Mar 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-22 17:30:35-04

A verdict has been reached in the trial of a Massachusetts pharmacy co-founder charged in a nationwide meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and sickened 700 others in 2012.

Barry Cadden, Pharmacy co-founder, was acquitted of causing deaths of 25 people in US meningitis outbreak but convicted of racketeering.

Cadden was charged with 25 counts of second-degree murder, conspiracy and other charges under the federal racketeering law.

The fungal meningitis outbreak was traced to contaminated steroid injections manufactured by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham.

Prosecutors said Cadden ran the New England Compounding Center in Framingham in an "extraordinarily dangerous" way by skirting industry regulations on sterility and cleanliness in an effort to push production and make more money.

His lawyers said he wasn't responsible for the deaths.