Japan's major drug maker, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company, found penicillium, a type of fungus, at its factory in 2022 and ignored the problem, according to an investigation report released on Tuesday.
The report was made by a group of external lawyers who the company asked to investigate a health crisis over its supplement containing red yeast rice or "Benikoji."
The supplement, which is meant to lower cholesterol, is possibly linked to over one hundred people's deaths. However, only five deaths related to the supplement have been officially registered at Japan's health ministry.
Officials from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare conduct an investigation at a Kobayashi Pharmaceutical factory in Osaka, Japan, March 30, 2024. /CFP
According to the report, a Kobayashi Pharmaceutical factory in Osaka found the penicillium attached to the inside of a container of raw materials for the supplement in November 2022, two years before the company talked to the public about the health concerns on March 22, 2024.
"Sometimes penicillium is possible to get mixed up," an administrative worker at the factory said, adding that the factory did not see the discovery as a problem.
The report also says the company failed to inform the public quickly about the information it had, as it received multiple inquiries from consumers about their health in January but only disclosed what it knew and recalled the relevant products two months later. The company also did not conduct inquiries into its manufacturing until after the matter became public knowledge, the report said.
The report also called for holding senior management staff responsible for the problem.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical held a meeting on Tuesday in which its chairman, Kazumasa Kobayashi, and President, Akihiro Kobayashi, were asked to resign.
(Cover: A Kobayashi Pharmaceutical factory in Osaka, Japan, March 30, 2024. /CFP)