Brown donates money from 'meningitis' firm

• Tweet

BOSTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., said he would donate the $10,000 he received from a pharmacy owner linked to 14 meningitis deaths to a charity.

Brown, elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 in a special election to succeed U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, is in a close race against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.

Gregory Conigliaro and his wife Cynthia held a fundraiser last month in their Massachusetts home, Brown's campaign confirmed to WCVB-TV in Boston.

"The campaign is donating contributions from the company owners to the Meningitis Foundation of America," the Scott campaign said in a statement.

Gregory Conigliaro and Barry Cadden, are the co-owners of the New England Compounding Center, in Framingham, Mass., which produced about 14,000 doses of the injectable steroid methylprednisolone acetate used to treat back and joint pain linked to 14 deaths and 170 people sickened with the rare and non-contagious fungal meningitis.

The investigation into the exact cause of the outbreak is ongoing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said its preliminary analyses showed all infected patients received an injection of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate contaminated with a fungus.

The fundraiser was held before the compounding center was publicly linked to the meningitis deaths.