Cholesterol drug, suspected of two deaths in Japan, generates chaos on the market
Two deaths and more than 100 hospitalizations have been linked to a health scare in Japan linked to dietary supplements intended to reduce cholesterol, the government said Wednesday .
Authorities are investigating after over-the-counter tablets were recalled by Japanese drugmaker Kobayashi Pharmaceutical following kidney complaints from customers. The company recalled three brands of supplements – “beni koji choleste help” and two other products – that contain an ingredient called red yeast rice, or beni koji.
Medical research describes red yeast rice as an alternative to statins for reducing high cholesterol, but also warns of the risk of organ damage depending on its chemical composition. The total number of suspected deaths (now) is two,” while “106 potentially related hospitalization cases have also emerged,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
The company that makes the supplement, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, sells a wide range of health products marketed through television advertisements in Japan, and warned that it has not reached a conclusion on a causal link between the health problems and its products.
A market in chaos
The company also supplied red yeast rice to about 50 other companies in Japan and two in Taiwan. Then dozens of Japanese companies that used koji raw material supplied by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical in their products separately announced recalls. The affected products include various health tablets, as well as a pink sparkling sake, salad dressings, breads and miso paste used in many traditional dishes.
Health Minister Keizo Takemi said Tuesday that the government told Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to "promptly provide information" on the situation. He also "instructed local authorities nationwide to collect information on health damage," he said, offering his condolences to those affected.
The previous day, the pharmaceutical company said that the first person to die had regularly purchased one of the recalled products over the course of nearly three years. He offered his “deepest apologies” and said the link was being investigated.
An analysis found the products may have contained “ingredients we did not intend to include,” the company said this week. But the analysis did not find citrinin produced by red yeast rice, which is toxic and can damage the kidneys.
Red yeast rice is “produced by fermenting steamed rice with a food mushroom and is often used to reduce high cholesterol as an alternative to statin drugs,” according to a 2019 article published in the British Medical Journal. Concerns have been raised in the past about red yeast rice products containing high levels of a compound called monacolin K, which has the same structure as doctor-approved cholesterol-lowering drugs.
“Red yeast rice products that contain significant amounts of monacolin K may have the same potential side effects as statin drugs, including muscle, kidney, and liver damage,” says the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health on his website.
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The article Cholesterol drug, suspected of two deaths in Japan, generates chaos on the market comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/farmaco-contro-il-colesterolo-sospettato-di-due-morti-in-giappone-genera-caos-sul-mercato/ on Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:55:16 +0000.