Top exec at pharmacy in deadly meningitis outbreak sentenced

BOSTON (AP) — A former co-owner of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy at the center of a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak that resulted in more than 100 patient deaths has been sentenced to a year in prison for conspiring to defraud the federal government. Federal prosecutors said Thursday that 57-year-old Gregory Conigliaro was the New England Compounding Center’s point of contact with federal and state regulators, but that he and others evaded regulatory oversight through fraud and misrepresentation. Prosecutors say about 800 patients in 20 states were sickened with fungal meningitis or other infections and about 100 died in 2012 after receiving injections of medical steroids manufactured by the now-closed pharmacy.