Japanese pharmaceutical group Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced on March 29, 2024 that it is investigating a fifth death that may be related to some of its anti-cholesterol dietary supplements.
The supplements in question contain red rice yeast and are at the center of a major health scandal in Japan.
The number of people hospitalized in Japan in this case has risen to 114, the group also said during a press conference. Patients mainly present with renal failure.
A case of hospitalization in Taiwan, which may also be linked to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s dietary supplements, was also reported yesterday, Thursday, by local media. If this link is confirmed, it would be the first known case outside of Japan.
Japanese firm Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has been ordered to recall dietary supplement pills after deaths among users. More than 100 people have been hospitalised after taking the supplements, which were marketed as helping to lower cholesterol levels pic.twitter.com/1YuaEupKok
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 27, 2024
“I deeply apologize for the great concern we have caused,” the family-owned conglomerate’s chairman, Akihiro Kobayashi, said today, bowing before the cameras with other directors of his company in a sign of repentance.
He also said he was “regretful” that the company did not address the issue until late last week, when it announced the recall of three product lines, despite having received a first notification from a doctor as early as January 15.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Group and Japanese health authorities are still trying to identify which substance in the red rice yeast (called “beni koji”) in the dietary supplements may be responsible for the hospitalizations and deaths.
According to protothema, this Osaka (western Japan) group also announced today that it wants to compensate people who experience side effects or are hospitalized after consuming its dietary supplements.
The company admitted this week that it also supplied red rice yeast to about fifty other companies in Japan, as well as two Taiwanese companies.
As a precaution, many of these companies have in turn issued recalls of their own products containing this yeast, such as carbonated sake, various salad dressings or miso, a pasty substance made from soybeans that have undergone fermentation.
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