Lab leader pleads no contest to manslaughter in 2012 Michigan meningitis deaths

The co-founder of a specialty pharmacy that was at the center of a deadly national meningitis outbreak in 2012 pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in Michigan, authorities said Tuesday.

Under a deal, Barry Cadden's prison sentence of 10 to 15 years will be served at the same time as his current 14 1/2-year federal sentence for fraud and other crimes, Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Cadden was co-founder of New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, which specialized in making drugs for certain treatments and supplying them to doctors across the U.S.

About 800 patients in 20 states were sickened with fungal meningitis or other infections, and about 100 died, after receiving injections of mold-tainted steroids, mostly for back pain, investigators said.