FILE - A sign in front of the Waverly Business Center lists the New England Compounding and other business in Framingham, Mass., Wednesday Oct. 3, 2012. / AP Photo/Marshall Wolff, The MetroWest Daily News
Federal investigators say they found contamination — this time, bacterial — in two more drugs produced by a Massachusetts specialty pharmacy whose fungus-tainted steroid shots have been linked to a massive meningitis outbreak.
Tests found several different strains of bacillus in a steroid and a medicine used in heart surgery that were produced by New England Compounding Center, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today.
The bacteria are commonly found in soil. The CDC said it has not received any reports of infections from the medications.
The bacteria were in three lots of the steroid betamethasone and one lot of cardioplegia solution, which is used to slow or stop the heart during surgery.
The CDC said it is still testing those lots for fungal contamination similar to those found in three lots of methylprednisolone acetate, another steroid, made by NECC. Those lots are considered the likely source of a fungal meningitis outbreak that so far has sickened 386 people and killed 28 in 19 states, including 11 in Tennessee.
The latest test results “reinforce the FDA’s concern about the lack of sterility in products produced at NECC’s compounding facility and serve to underscore that hospitals, clinics, and health care providers should not use any NECC-supplied products,” the agency said.
NECC, based in Framingham, Mass., voluntarily ceased operations and recalled all of its products last month.
Contact Duane Marsteller at 615-259-8241 ordmarstelle@tennessean.com. Follow him @DuaneMarsteller on Twitter.