The Celobar incident was a

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

fraud that occurred in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 2003, and resulted in the death of more than twenty TUBINO, M.: SIMONI, J. A. Reflecting about Celobar® case. New Chemist. n. 2, 2007.

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

patients by barium poisoning.''Caso Celobar: diretores do laboratório fabricante do medicamento são condenados''
Court Sentence Summary
(in Portuguese) by JusBrasil Notícias Jurídicas, extracted from the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice proceedings of January 30, 2009. Accessed on 2009-06-30.''Justiça condena 2 por mortes por Celobar''. Folha de S.Paulo, January 30, 2009
Online version
accessed on 2009-06030. Laboratório Enila was a small

ian pharmaceutics manufacturer who made an oral X-ray contrast medium trademarked Celobar. The medium's main ingredient was pharmaceutics-grade

barium sulfate Barium sulfate (or sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ba SO4. It is a white crystalline solid that is odorless and insoluble in water. It occurs as the mineral barite, which is the main commercial source of barium an ...

(BaSO₄) imported from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 2003, without having the necessary expertise or authorization, they tried to manufacture BaSO₄ in-house from much-cheaper technical-grade barium carbonate (BaCO₃). Non-reacted

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...

and other barium salts that remained in the adulterated product killed nine patients. The first death was Ricardo Diomedes, who had taken Celobar on May 21, 2003, at a clinic in

Nova Iguaçu Nova Iguaçu (, locally: or , ''New Iguaçu'') is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Location The city is named after the Iguaçu River that runs through it and empties into Guanabara Bay (not to be confused with the Iguaçu Ri ...

near

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. A few hours later, he was suffering from vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, and weakness; he died the next day in

Nilópolis Nilópolis (, , ) is a municipality in Brazil, located in the Rio de Janeiro state's southwestern region, bordering São João de Meriti, Mesquita and Rio de Janeiro. It is the smallest municipality in Rio de Janeiro state, with a total area of ...

. Postmortem exams confirmed that

barium Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. Th ...

poisoning was the cause of death. Analysis of the Celobar by the

Oswaldo Cruz Institute The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Portuguese ''Fundação Oswaldo Cruz'', also known as FIOCRUZ) is a scientific institution for research and development in biological sciences located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it is considered one of the world's ma ...

showed up to 14% unreacted carbonate (the maximum allowed limit being 0.001%). The other eight deaths occurred in the state of

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...

, where most of the contaminated lot had been shipped. (Coincidentally, the same state as the Goiânia accident.) Authorities were warned after the first deaths, recalled the lot, and closed the laboratory, which eventually went bankrupt. On January 29, 2009, Enila's

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(Márcio D'Icahahy Câmara Lima), and the chemist who carried out the synthesis (Antônio Carlos Fonseca da Silva) were sentenced to 20 and 22 years in jail, respectively.

References

{{reflist Medical malpractice