Website Notification 9.1.23
Good afternoon,
For over thirty years New England Life Care (NELC) operated solely as a not-for-profit home infusion company owned by our member hospitals and governed by a Board of Directors. Following the 2012 nationwide meningitis outbreak that was precipitated by contaminated product compounded at New England Compounding Center, several NELC member hospital pharmacy leaders approached NELC with a request to build a member owned and controlled 503b sterile-to-sterile compounding facility to ensure the highest quality products for their patients. Ten member hospitals contributed $1M in initial capital, and NELC funded the remaining $5M to build the compounding pharmacy, officially named Advanced Compounding Solutions (ACS).
Building the ACS was a significant financial investment in 2015/2016 and continues to be today, primarily because of increasingly stringent FDA, and cGMP requirements. During the early years, our member hospitals utilized the ACS quite extensively, however that has not been the case more recently as larger compounding companies utilizing less expensive non-sterile to sterile methods have come into the market. The emergence of manufactured essential copies has further eroded member utilization of the ACS.
In the last several years, our member hospitals have scaled back orders to ACS in response to their own numerous financial pressures and the market changes referenced herein. Gradually this started to become a financially untenable situation for ACS and recently reached a critical decision point.
Recognizing that our ACS members no longer have the same critical need for compounding services from NELC as they did back in 2016, combined with unsustainable financial losses, the NELC Board of Directors accepted management’s recommendation to cease operating the ACS as a 503b compounding facility.
It is with great sadness that we announce the discontinuation of our 503b service line. Advanced Compounding Solutions is the quintessential symbol of NELC’s collaboration with our Member Hospitals and our commitment to safety and quality.
- Beginning July 15, ACS will cease taking any new orders, however, we will fulfill all existing orders and plan to discontinue all compounding by Monday, July 31.
- Our final monitoring of operations will be August 31, 2023, when we will no longer offer the 503b service line.
- For information regarding product beginning September 1, 2023, please contact:
pharmacovigilance@nelifecare.org.