More than 100 people have reportedly died after Argentine hospitals treated them with medical-grade fentanyl that had been contaminated with bacteria.
Concerns first arose in May, when dozens of patients died after being infected by the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae and Ralstonia picketti, which were resistant to multiple antibiotics in some cases.
Contaminated fentanyl, produced by pharmaceutical company HLB Pharma in its laboratory Laboratorio Ramallo, was identified by investigators as the source of the infections. The drug had been administered to patients who required pain relief.
Argentina’s drug regulator, ANMAT, has confirmed that both the deceased patients and ampoules from two fentanyl batches had been contaminated by the bacteria. One bacteria-ridden batch of fentanyl was found to have been “widely circulated”.
The deaths have sparked protests, organized by friends and families of the patients.
Ariel García Furfaro, HLB Pharma’s owner, has rejected claims that the company caused the patients’ deaths. He told newspaper La Nación that “fentanyl has nothing to do with the deaths,” also claiming that someone deliberately planted the bacteria in the ampoules.
García Furfaro said: “If the ampoules were really contaminated, someone planted [the bacteria]; it can’t be generated in a laboratory.” He emphasized that he wants people to know “the truth,” saying HLB Pharma will “stand in the place of the accused” until “everything is cleared up.”
Javier Milei’s government has issued a statement insisting that the businessman is directly responsible for the patients’ deaths, as well as accusing him of corruption.
Titled “THE LORD OF FENTANYL MUST GO TO PRISON,” the statement claims that the Milei government shut down and reported HLB Pharma’s laboratory, labeling García Furfaro as a “corrupt entrepreneur, friend and beneficiary of the political elite that ruined the country and filled public administration with cronies and corrupt individuals.”
“The Ministry of Health has prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths that could well have been caused by a corrupt businessman and Kirchnerist militant, and will go to the fullest extent to ensure the case moves forward and that the person responsible ends up behind bars,” it continues.
García Furfaro has maintained that HLB Pharma issued a recall on the fentanyl before the government did, stating: “ANMAT didn’t pull it off the market; we pulled it off. There are emails to prove it.”
He has also claimed that the patients who died had other serious health issues in addition to alleged fentanyl-related bacterial infections. He cited the case of 18-year-old Renato Nicolini, who was hospitalized after a motorbike accident.
García Furfaro said that Nicolini was battling “five or six other bacteria” in addition to those identified by ANMAT, with doctors describing his situation as “complicated”.
The young motorcyclist, whose head was “shattered,” had been admitted with a prognosis of brain death, according to the laboratory owner.
However, many of the patients’ relatives are adamant that their loved one’s conditions worsened after they were given fentanyl doses.
Leonel Ayala, a 32-year-old music teacher, was admitted to hospital on March 15 with kidney stones. An unsuccessful procedure left Ayala with pancreatitis, which required surgery, according to his father.
Ayala then underwent surgery on April 4, and was subsequently given fentanyl for pain relief. On April 6, Ayala “started to deteriorate in ways we don’t understand,” his older brother told the BBC.
Ayala died on April 8, one of at least eight patients to die at the Italian Hospital in a short period of time, with his brother adding that the fentanyl ampoules were a “common factor among all the victims.”
No charges have been filed, although at least 24 people- including García Furfaro- are being investigated and have had their assets seized by Argentine courts.
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