BOSTON (AP) — The pharmacy linked to the nation’s deadly outbreak of meningitis is owned by two brothers-in-law who brought different but complementary skills to the venture: One’s a pharmacist, the other a risk-taking businessman who made his mark recycling old computers, fishing rope and mattresses.

Now the New England Compounding Center and its practices are under scrutiny as investigators try to determine how a steroid solution supplied by the pharmacy apparently became contaminated with a fungus. The drug has sickened more than 180 people in 12 states, killing 14. Most of the patients had received spinal injections of the steroid for back pain.