The Celobar incident was a

pharmaceutical fraud Pharmaceutical fraud is when pharmaceutical companies engage in illegal, fraudulent activities to the detriment of patients and/or insurers. Examples include counterfeit drugs that do not contain the active ingredient, false claims in packaging a ...

that occurred in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in 2003, and resulted in the death of more than twenty

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

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 in nature as the mineral barite, which is the main commercial source of ...

(BaSO₄) imported from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. In 2003, without having the necessary expertise or authorization, they tried to manufacture BaSO₄ in-house from much-cheaper technical-grade

barium carbonate Barium carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula BaCO3. Like most alkaline earth metal carbonates, it is a white salt that is poorly soluble in water. It occurs as the mineral known as witherite. In a commercial sense, it is one of ...

(BaCO₃). They saved US$100.Por um punhado de dólares
Época, 16 de Junho, 2003. Non-reacted

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, (), 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 group ...

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 (, ''New Iguaçu'') is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Geography 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 Rive ...

near

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. 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 o ...

. Postmortem exams confirmed that

barium Barium is a chemical element; it has 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 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 States of Brazil, state located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District (Brazil), Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Ge ...

, where most of the contaminated lot had been shipped. Authorities were warned after the first deaths, recalled the lot, and closed the laboratory, which eventually went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

. On January 29, 2009, Enila's

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(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 Deaths from medical malpractice