Japan is investigating the deaths of 76 people, in addition to four others who died in April, for possible links to the consumption of an anti-cholesterol supplement manufactured by the Japanese company Kobayashi Pharmaceutical.
Many people who had consumed the same dietary supplements, which contain red yeast rice and are believed to cause kidney problems, were also hospitalized. “Although the direct cause of hospitalization or death is not kidney disease,” it has “become clear” that, in some cases, the consumption of these products has “indirectly” had adverse repercussions on the health status of several people, indicated the pharmaceutical in a statement.
The Osaka-based company in western Japan announced the recall of three product lines in March, even though it had medical information about the problem since January 15. Japan’s health ministry has ordered Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to provide a daily report on its internal investigation. Red yeast rice (called “beni koji” in Japan) has been used for centuries in Asia in food and alcoholic beverages, as well as in traditional Chinese medicine, for its digestive virtues and because it improves blood circulation. This yeast contains a natural statin, called monacolin K, capable of inhibiting cholesterol synthesis.
Blue mold
The Ministry of Health has indicated that it has received about 170 reports from relatives of people supposedly affected by the defective product. Of all these reports, doctors have been able to determine 76 cases of deaths that could have been caused by the consumption of the product, according to what the responsible minister, Keizo Takemi, said at a press conference this Friday.
The government investigation into the matter has already determined that the cause of the kidney damage was contamination by puberulic acid, produced by blue mold, which is suspected to have reached the product during its cultivation, after health inspectors found blue mold in cultivation chambers and tanks at two of the pharmaceutical company’s factories.
In addition to the products mentioned above, the company distributed red yeast rice to 52 other domestic and foreign companies, which it also asked to withdraw their products in case they might also be affected. MS (afp/efe)
