( CNN ) -- When the job offer came from the Food and Drug Administration in the winter of 2005 , Sarah Sellers jumped at the chance . It was her `` dream job , '' she says , and she picked up her family and moved from Chicago to Washington . Two years later , she left in frustration , unable , she says , to do the job she was hired to do : help clean up compounding pharmacies . Compound pharmacists create customized medication solutions for patients for whom manufactured pharmaceuticals wo n't work , according to the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists . Those mixed-batch drugs can range from children 's cough syrup -- like adding grape flavor -- to complex concoctions that treat cancer , according to Kevin Outterson , an associate professor of health law and bioethics at Boston University . As a young pharmacist , Sellers had worked in a compounding pharmacy and was shocked by what she describes as unsterile conditions . `` The pharmacy was purportedly making sterile injections from scratch using non-sterile ingredients , '' she told a Senate committee in 2003 . `` When I asked permission to order and substitute FDA-approved products because of safety concerns , I was cautioned that it would be less profitable for the pharmacy . '' At the FDA , Sellers had hoped to help write new federal sterility guidelines for compounding pharmacies . `` I expected the guidelines to come out when I was working at the agency in 2006 , '' Sellers said . `` But it never happened . It was so frustrating . '' More than six years later , those guidelines -- which some experts say might have prevented the current outbreak of meningitis -- still have not come out . Twelve people have died in the current outbreak of non-contagious fungal meningitis , linked to contaminated steroid injections made by the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center . Meningitis outbreak highlights failed oversight efforts . `` We 've been waiting for years for these guidelines , '' said Michael Cohen , a pharmacist and president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices . `` They 're desperately needed to assure patient safety . '' Over the years , people have died , been blinded and become ill from contaminated medicines made at compounding pharmacies . In 2003 , the Government Accountability Office testified that the FDA was aware of more than 200 adverse events associated with drugs from compounding pharmacies since 1990 . The infections continued : For example , in 2011 , nine people in Alabama died from blood infections after they received intravenous medicine made at a compounding pharmacy , and in 2011 and 2012 , 33 people suffered fungal eye infections from drops made at a compounding pharmacy in Florida . The sterility guidelines are in `` in progress , '' according to Erica Jefferson , an FDA spokeswoman . The agency , she said , has tried for 20 years to have more oversight of compounding pharmacies but has faced challenges by the industry . When asked why it 's taking years to write these guidelines , Jefferson declined to comment . Sellers said that when she worked at the FDA , `` political pressure '' kept the guidelines from being published . `` Compounding pharmacies make a lot of money , and it goes to various places at the state and federal level , '' she said . The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists has spent more than $ 1 million over the past decade on lobbying , according to the Center for Responsive Politics . David Miller , the group 's executive vice president and chief executive officer , denies that his group has lobbied against federal sterility standards and says it has actually been fighting for them . `` We 've written to the FDA ; we 've written to Congress , '' Miller said . `` We 've been pushing on this since before 2003 . '' After Sellers left the FDA , she moved back to Chicago and became an independent consultant , and she still fights for better standards for compounding pharmacies . The problem , she says , is bigger than just a few outbreaks , since illnesses might not be traced back to contaminated drugs . `` The FDA only knows about the safety concerns they hear about , '' she said . CNN 's Danielle Dellorto contributed to this report .
At the FDA , Sarah Sellers fought for compounding pharmacy guidelines . She was a pharmacist and she knew how to make drugs. Over the years , people have died , been blinded and become ill. A compounding pharmacists ' group says it 's fighting for sterility standards .