The Food and Drug Administration is seeking greater authority to regulate drug makers such as the Massachusetts company that produced steroid injections tied to a deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis, officials said Wednesday at a congressional hearing in which one of the firm's owners invoked his constitutional rights and refused to testify.
Barry Cadden, a co-founder of the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., briefly appeared before the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee hearing. In a dramatic moment during the televised proceeding, Cadden refused to discuss his company's role in an outbreak that has killed at least 32 people.
"Under advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer under basis of my constitutional rights and privileges, including the 5th Amendment," Cadden said citing his right to avoid self-incrimination.
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