Japanese company Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced on Friday that it is investigating the cases of 76 additional deaths potentially linked to its anti-cholesterol food supplements containing red yeast rice, a resounding health scandal in the country for several months.
During a previous update on this matter in April, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical reported five deaths potentially linked to its products, which have since been withdrawn from the market. This initial number has since been reduced to four. This therefore brings the provisional total of suspicious deaths in this case to 80.
A first report on January 15
The company only communicated on the subject after mid-March by announcing the recall of three product ranges, although it had received a first worrying report from a doctor on January 15. At the end of March, the company said it had identified puberulic acid, a toxic substance naturally produced by mold, in batches of its recalled products.
Many people who had consumed these dietary supplements, which appeared to cause kidney problems, have also been hospitalized. “Even if the direct cause of hospitalization or death was not kidney disease,” it “became clear” that in some cases, consumption of the products in question had “indirectly” adversely affected people’s health, according to a statement from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical.
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But the company and Japanese health authorities are still working to understand precisely why and how this massive health scandal occurred.
