A former Massachusetts hospital employee is now facing a federal charge related to the 2012 nationwide meningitis outbreak that killed more than 70 people and sickened hundreds more.
Claudio Pontoriero of Everett was a pharmacy buyer at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was employed there from Jan. 1999 to April 2018, according to the hospital.
A federal information unsealed yesterday charges him with making false statements to federal agents investigating the deadly meningitis outbreak caused by tainted steroids produced by the Framingham-based New England Compounding Center.
Pontoriero, a pharmacy technician, was paid $5,000-a-month from 2006 to 2012 for a total of $355,000. He told agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s criminal investigations office that it was for consulting services, according to court documents, denying that it was in exchange for his influence in selecting NECC or its sister company Ameridose as a drug supplier for MGH.
His attorney did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for MGH said the hospital is cooperating with authorities.
So far, NECC owner Barry Cadden and head pharmacist Glenn Chin have been convicted of racketeering and are in prison.
