Reports: FDA investigating more than two-dozen compounding pharmacies

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration will inspect about 30 compounding pharmacies that it has deemed "high risk," according to published reports.

Businessweek reported that the FDA started visits to the pharmacies started last month and would continue for the next two months. So far, unsanitary conditions were found at pharmacies in Chicago, Florida, Arkansas and Mississippi.

Regulators have placed greater scrutiny on compounding pharmacies following a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to contaminated injectable steroids produced at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. So far, the epidemic has sickened 720 people in 20 states, leading to 49 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.