ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Tighter regulations on sterile compounding pharmacies in the US are being called for following a fatal nationwide meningitis outbreak was linked back to a Massachusetts company.

This comes as the New England Compounding Centre (NECC) is trying to place blame for the outbreak on a cleaning contractor that provided once-a-month services to its cleanroom facilities.

The outbreak linked to NECC has been blamed for 39 deaths and hundreds of illnesses nationwide.

Cleaning contractor UniFirst received a letter from NECC demanding it take legal responsibility for claims against the compounding centre related to the outbreak.

It has stated it believes the claims are without merit.

UniFirst spokesman Adam Soreff said in a statement the company's UniClean business sent two technicians to NECC monthly for 90 minutes each. He said the cleaners used the NECC's own cleaning solution.

"UniClean was not in any way responsible for NECC's day-to-day operations, its overall facility cleanliness, or the integrity of the products they produced," he said.