Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals and Japanese health authorities are working to identify the substance found in red yeast rice from the nutritional supplements in question (Al Jazeera)
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Japanese Ministry of Health announced 157 hospitalizations that may be related to the nutritional supplements scandal, which has caused a great uproar in the country in recent days.
This number represents an increase in the number of potential victims of an anti-cholesterol nutritional supplement, containing red yeast rice, and marketed by the Japanese Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Group, which confirmed this report without providing further details.
The Pharmaceutical Industries Group announced last Friday that it was investigating 5 deaths, noting that 114 people suffering from kidney problems were taken to hospital.
Last week, local media also reported a case of hospitalization in Taiwan, which could also be linked to nutritional supplements from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company.
Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals and Japanese health authorities are still working to identify the substance in red yeast rice (called benikoji) of the nutritional supplement in question that could be behind the reported hospitalizations and deaths.
This case has been making headlines in the Japanese media for 10 days, and this has been accompanied by false information and conspiracy theories on social media.
The company, based in Osaka in western Japan, indicated last week that it had delivered its red yeast rice products to about 50 companies in Japan, as well as two companies in Taiwan.
Kobayashi also said that she "regrets" that the company did not talk about this issue until after mid-March, when it announced the withdrawal of 3 production lines, even though it received the first report on the issue from a doctor on January 15.
As a precautionary measure, several companies have withdrawn their products containing this yeast, such as salad dressings or fermented soy paste (“miso”).
Source: French