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March 29 (UPI) -- Kobayashi Pharmaceutical on Friday announced a fifth death related to its beni-koji supplements. The company said puberulic acid from blue mold was found in the red yeast rice products, a compound that was not expected to be in the supplements.
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The family of a person who died from suspected kidney failure had been taking the company's red yeast malted rice supplement, but the Japanese pharma company said it doesn't know how long the person had been using it.
The five people beni-koji users who have died so far have been in their 70s to 90s, according to Kobayashi.
The company said 114 people who used the supplement have been hospitalized while another 680 people have or are seeking outpatient treatment for their symptoms.
Kobayashi said it will offer compensation to all of them.
"Determining a cause and preventing (the incident) from occurring again is our responsibility. I will make sure as the company's head to get that done," Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi said at a press conference.
About 300,000 packages of the company's "beni-koji choleste help" supplement marketed to lower cholesterol were recalled and Japan is sharing information about the health impacts with the World Health Organization.
Japan's government and the company are continuing to investigate the substance found in the products and how it may have gotten into them.
At the Osaka press conference Friday Kobayashi said it didn't go public with the problem until March 22 even though they first noticed a potential problem in January because they had problem identifying the cause of the health problems linked to the supplements.
