Ameridose plans voluntary shutdown amid meningitis outbreak

BOSTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Pharmacy compounder Ameridose LLC, which shares common ownership with the company at the center of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, plans to shut down voluntarily for a week as a precautionary move, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Ameridose, based in Westborough, Massachusetts, is expected to announce the shutdown as early as Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the situation. The source said the move was strictly precautionary and that no contamination had been found.

Ameridose is working to distance itself from New England Compounding Center, which distributed thousands of vials of a contaminated steroid that has been implicated in 12 deaths.

Both companies are owned by Gregory Conigliaro, an engineer who invented a way to turn plastic into pot-hole filler, and his brother-in-law, Barry Cadden, a pharmacist in charge of pharmacy operations at the New England Compounding Center, according to records filed with Massachusetts authorities.

(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Keywords: USA HEALTH/MENINGITIS AMERIDOSE