3 days ago
At least 87 people die in Argentina after being treated with medical-use fentanyl tainted with bacteria: Reports
At least 87 people have died in Argentina after being treated with medical-use fentanyl that was tainted with bacteria, reports said.
According to Buenos Aires Herald, the investigation started in May, when the first nine people were confirmed to have died of an infection caused by fentanyl produced by pharmaceutical company HLB Pharma and its laboratory Laboratorio Ramallo.
Since then, La Plata Federal Judge Ernesto Kreplak, from the Buenos Aires province judiciary, has been leading an investigation to trace the full number of victims and those responsible.
Argentine food and drug regulator ANMAT, Buenos Aires Herald added, ordered all health centers in Argentina to stop using their fentanyl batch, and ordered the companies to halt all production. Last week, a media outlet reported that HLB Pharma had been authorized to purchase certificates to manufacture medicines.
However, ANMAT refuted the article in a communiqué and stressed that the laboratory 'cannot carry out any activity related to the manufacture, fractionation, import, export, distribution, or marketing of medical or pharmaceutical products.'
The Guardian reported that in an interview with La Nación, the owner of HLB Pharma, Ariel García Furfaro, denied that the deaths could be directly attributed to his product, said his company pulled it from the market itself, and claimed that if the ampoules were contaminated, someone had 'planted' the contaminant.
The patients had been hospitalised for unrelated conditions and were given the drug for pain relief or anaesthetic, before becoming infected with the multidrug-resistant bacteria.
No charges have yet been filed, but the court has named 24 people involved in the manufacture and sale of the opioid as suspects. They have been banned from leaving the country and had their assets frozen, The Guardian report said.
