A forensic medical report has found that tainted fentanyl played a significant role in the “fatal outcomes” of as many as 96 patients who were treated with the opiate across Argentina. 

On Monday, the Supreme Court opened the medical records of 20 health clinics. The court’s investigation first began in May after nine people died of infections resulting from fentanyl treatments from the pharmaceutical company HLB Pharma and its manufacturer, Laboratorio Ramallo. 

The report analyzed Batch 31202, produced on December 18, 2024, which was contaminated with the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae and Ralstonia picketti. The results were sent to the federal court in La Plata, where they were reviewed by the judge overseeing the investigation, Ernesto Kreplak.

The court’s medical team examined personal records from nine health centers: Hospital Italiano in La Plata, Hospital Clemente Álvarez in Rosario, Hospital Italiano in Rosario, the Dupuytren Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics in Buenos Aires, the Rosario Park Sanatorium, the Entre Rios Park Sanatorium, and the Cullen Sanatorium in Santa Fe.

Although the report, which was produced with the collaboration of experts appointed by HLB Pharma and its owner, Ariel García Furfaro, did not establish a “direct causal link” between the contaminated drug and the patients’ deaths, it nevertheless found that the fentanyl constituted a “significant aggravating factor for those with multiple comorbidities.” The report likewise confirmed that the opiate was indeed contaminated and that it was present in the patients’ bloodstreams — findings that are likely to impact the Justice Department’s own investigation.

The report submitted to the court is 30 pages long and contains the signatures of each of those who contributed to the study. Among its conclusions, it noted that the bacterium, Ralstonia, is highly resilient, with “a great ability to survive in low-nutrient conditions” and “solutions,” which would appear to explain how the fentanyl was contaminated in the first place, at least in part.

Along similar lines, the authors of the report noted that Klebsiella is a bacterium with “a high frequency of occurrence for healthcare-related infections, especially in closed settings.”

A call to investigate “officials who knew”

As the Justice Department proceeds with its probe into the deaths of nearly 100 people who were administered contaminated fentanyl, Adriana Francese, the lawyer representing the victims’ families, says that she has requested that the Judiciary investigate “the officials who knew what was going on.”

Francese initially targeted the laboratory that manufactured the drug and has called HLB Pharma’s activities prior to the first cases being reported “precarious.” She has also taken aim at García Furfaro and suggested that his company made critical mistakes prior to the distribution of the tainted drug.

In addition, Francese has pointed the finger at the federal government, blaming the National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT, by its Spanish acronym) for failing to take responsibility for the contaminated batch. 

ANMAT has ordered all health centers in Argentina to cease using the fentanyl batch in question and that all laboratories halt production of the drug. After reporting earlier this month indicated that HBP Pharma had been authorized to continue its production of different medicines, the government agency issued a communiqué claiming that the pharmaceutical company and its affiliated laboratories “cannot carry out any activity related to the manufacture, fractionation, import, export, distribution, or marketing of medical or pharmaceutical products.”

With information from Ámbito