Above: Southboro Medical Group was a customer of NECC (photo via southboromedical.com)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week posted a (corrected) list of customers who received medicine from the Framingham pharmaceutical compounding company linked to a nationwide meningitis outbreak. Two Southborough facilities, including Southboro Medical Group, are on the list.
Neither of the facilities in Southborough received the tainted steroid allegedly to blame for the fungal meningitis cases that as of Wednesday had killed 24 people and sickened 317, but during a recent inspection of the Framingham compounding facility, authorities found dirty equipment and poor sterilization practices.
In June, Southboro Medical received a shipment of methotrexate from NECC. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the drug is commonly used to treat severe cases of the skin disease psoriasis, as well as severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis. It may also be used to treat some forms of cancer.
The other Southborough facility to receive drugs from NECC was Americas Vein Centers on Park Central Drive (map). The facility received two shipments of sodium tetradecyl, a drug commonly used to treat varicose and spider veins, in June and August, respectively.
In total, the list of NECC customers released by the FDA contained 215 doctors and health centers in Massachusetts, including most of the state’s hospitals. You can see the complete list on the FDA website.
