Pharmacy owner won't testify about outbreak

Susan Walsh / AP

Barry Cadden, president and co-owner of the New England Compounding Center, shown being sworn at a House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee hearing on Nov. 14, took the fifth and refused to testify.

By Maggie Fox, NBC News

The owner of a pharmacy at the center of an outbreak of fungal meningitis caused by contaminated pain drugs that have killed 32 people and made 461 people sick refused to testify at a packed hearing on Wednesday, and managed to avoid facing the family of his first victim.

Barry Cadden, president, co-owner and director of pharmacy for the New England Compounding Center, remained in a separate room with his lawyers while the wife of his first victim testified, then managed to avoid her in the hallway as she left the committee room. He took the fifth, invoking his constitutional rights not to testify -- even when asked whether he was the owner of the pharmacy.

Robbed of a chance to confront Cadden, members of the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee instead spent hours berating the Food and Drug Administration. Despite their outrage over the growing toll from the outbreak, Republican members of the committee made it clear they are not ready to change any legislation just yet.

We will be living with this nightmare for ages to come, Joyce Lovelace of Albany, Ky., whose husband, Eddie, was the first person to die in the outbreak of fungal meningitis traced to the pharmacy, told the hearing.

We now know that New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc. killed Eddie. I have lost my soul-mate and lifes partner with whom I worked side by side, day after day for more than 50 years, said Lovelace, her voice cracking as she testified.

It was not an easy death that we witnessed, she added.

Lovelace said her husband, a 78-year-old judge, had been healthy and active before the spinal injections that killed him.

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Pharmacy owner won't testify about outbreak