After dozens of deaths, bosses of Japan cholesterol pill company resign

The chairman and president of a major Japanese dietary supplement maker announced their resignation on Tuesday, as the company probes dozens of deaths potentially linked to products meant to lower cholesterol.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is at the centre of a health scare linked to its over-the-counter tablets containing red yeast rice, which is fermented with a mould culture.

The company’s board released a damning external report on Tuesday that said the firm had failed to prioritise consumer safety and acted with an “insufficient sense of urgency”.

Red yeast rice or “beni koji” has been used in food, alcoholic drinks and folk medicine for centuries around East Asia.

Medical studies say it can improve cholesterol levels but also warn of a risk of organ damage depending on the ingredient’s chemical make-up.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical said president Akihiro Kobayashi and chairman Kazumasa Kobayashi were leaving their posts. Both men belong to the firm’s founding family.

The decision was made “to clarify executive responsibility over a series of actions by our company related to the ‘beni koji’ issue”, it said in a statement.

It later said it had detected a potentially toxic acid produced by the mould at one of its factories, and the government inspected the firm’s facilities.

Then last month, the company said it was probing a total of 80 deaths possibly connected to its pills, and investigating whether organs other than kidneys were harmed.

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Japanese cholesterol tablets spark health scare after 2 die and over 100 hospitalised

At the time the government called Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s delay in reporting the number of cases under investigation “extremely regrettable”.

The report by a team of external lawyers released on Tuesday also