Japan authorities inspect Kobayashi Pharma factory

TOKYO: Health authorities searched a second Kobayashi Pharmaceutical factory in western Japan yesterday after the company reported five deaths possibly tied to dietary supplements, an official said.

The inspection in Wakayama prefecture follows one on Saturday in Osaka, expanding the investigation into the drugmaker’s use of “Beni-Koji” red yeast materials.

Osaka-based Kobayashi said it found what appeared to be potentially toxic puberulic acid that could have been produced by blue mould penicillium in Beni-Koji materials produced between last April and October at the Osaka factory.

As of Friday, 114 people had been hospitalised and five had died after taking the supplements, which were marketed as helping lower cholesterol levels, the company said.

The cause of the deaths has not been confirmed, the official at Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry told Reuters.

But “it is suspected that Beni-Koji may be the cause, so we have inspected two factories in two days”.

Kobayashi said on Friday it was investigating a suspected link between the products and their effects on the kidney since it received reports of kidney disease linked to the products.

“We will fully cooperate with the investigation so that we can resolve the problems as early as possible,” the head of Kobayashi’s investor relations, Yuko Tomiyama, told reporters yesterday.

The health official said the ministry “would join hands with other ministries concerned to do our utmost to resolve the ongoing case while asking Kobayashi Pharma to cooperate as needed in looking into the case”.