The Japanese pharmaceutical group Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced on Thursday two new deaths that may be linked to some of its dietary supplements, at the center of a health scandal in Japan that has gained momentum in recent days, the AFP agency reports.
This brings to four the number of deaths suspected to have been caused by these dietary supplements based on a type of yeast-fermented rice called “beni koji”, or red rice yeast.
This yeast is presented as a natural cholesterol reducer, but studies have warned for years that it is potentially dangerous: depending on its chemical composition, it can damage organs such as the liver or kidneys.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical and the Japanese Ministry of Health are also investigating over a hundred cases of hospitalization in Japan, also potentially linked to these dietary supplements.
The two people whose deaths were announced by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical on Thursday used one of the three product ranges in question, the company said in a statement.
“We are in the process of verifying the facts and causal links in these cases,” continued the pharmaceutical group based in Osaka (western Japan), which last week launched a broad recall campaign for these products.
The company also said it supplied red yeast rice to about fifty other companies in Japan. Many of these have decided to withdraw from the market various by-products such as sparkling sake, salad dressings and fermented soybean paste (miso).
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical also sold its yeast to two Taiwanese companies.
“Relevant ministries and agencies are working together to ensure food safety, including by trying to identify the substance that caused health damage and understand how it got into the product,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Thursday.
The government has also asked other dietary supplement manufacturers to check their products and is informing foreign countries about the health issue, Hayashi added at a press briefing.
