Kobayashi Pharma to exit red yeast rice business amid health scandal

TOKYO

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co said Thursday it will discontinue its red yeast rice business following a scandal involving dietary supplements that contained material suspected of causing deaths.

The company’s board made the decision “considering the serious health hazard and inconvenience it has caused to society,” the Osaka-based drugmaker said in a statement.

The number of deaths potentially linked to the consumption of beni-koji choleste help supplements reached 107 as of Sunday, with 467 people having been hospitalized so far, it said.

The company came under criticism for only making the health hazard public in March, two months after it became aware of its supplements’ potential danger. The exact cause of the illness is still under investigation.

It said it will start accepting compensation claims from Aug 19.