North Carolina ? For months, prosecutors say, technicians in the gloom of a run-down North Carolina plant prepared life-sustaining syringes and shipped them before ensuring they were sterile.

Investigators believe a rush to maximize profits led Dushyant Patel’s AM2PAT Inc. to produce heparin and saline syringes that killed five people and sickened hundreds of others, some resulting in spinal meningitis and permanent brain damage. Authorities are now on an international search for Patel after he was indicted last week on 10 charges including fraud, false statements and selling adulterated medical devices.

U.S. Attorney George Holding said Tuesday that authorities believe Patel has fled to his native India and have turned to Interpol for cross-border aid in catching up to him.