The head and supervisory pharmacists at New England Compounding Center Inc., which was the alleged source of contaminated medication that killed 64 people in a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, have been indicted on second-degree murder charges in seven states, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.

The Justice Department said in its statement that Barry J. Cadden, owner and head pharmacist of the now-defunct Framingham, Massachusetts-based firm, and supervisory pharmacist Glenn A. Chin, were charged with 25 acts of second-degree murder in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. They face a maximum of life in prison if convicted on all counts, the Justice Department said.

Also indicted were 12 other individuals, all associated with NECC, including six other pharmacists, the director of operations, the national sales director, an unlicensed pharmacy technician, two of NECC's other owners, and one other individual on charges including racketeering, mail fraud, conspiracy, contempt, and violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, according to the Justice Department.

There were a total of 751 patients in 20 states, including the 64 in nine states who died, who were diagnosed with a fungal infection after being injected with medicine from contaminated vials of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate manufactured by NECC.

In addition to the murder charges filed against Mr. Cadden and Mr. Chin, the indictment also alleges the compounding pharmacy's other pharmacists knowingly made and sold numerous drugs in a similarly unsafe manner and in unsanitary conditions, including failing to properly sanitize the NECC'S drugs, test them for sterility, and wait for test results before sending the drugs to customers, the Justice Department said.

It is also alleged that the pharmacy repeatedly claimed it dispensed drugs pursuant to valid patient-specific prescriptions, when in fact it routinely dispensed drugs in bulk without valid prescriptions, and used fictional and celebrity names on fake prescriptions to dispense the drugs.