The Ministry of Health announced on Friday that there is dozens more deaths possibly linked to beni kōji (red yeast rice) supplements sold by Kobayashi Pharmaceuticalin addition to the five previously confirmed.
Investigations for three cases have already been completed and no causal link with the supplements could be confirmed. The remaining 76 cases are still under investigation.
Although the ministry had required the company to report to the public the number of cases linking adverse health effects to the supplement, Kobayashi had not updated the death toll since it rose to five on March 29. The ministry told the company to confirm the death toll on June 13, but Kobayashi said only that “cases were under investigation” and did not report the new figures until Friday.
