The full extent of the health hazards surrounding Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s supplements containing red malt has not yet been clarified. Even if they stop taking supplements, their kidney function does not improve, and many people are still forced to visit the hospital. In an interview with the Sankei Shimbun, a woman who developed kidney failure expressed the pain of having her daily life taken away from her, and appealed, “I want Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to think about the victims and respond with sincerity.”
“I was in a ‘burnt-out state’ where I lost most of my kidney function. If I had continued drinking any longer, I would have died.” A woman in her 50s living in the Kansai region said this with an expression of anguish. I started taking supplements in May of last year to lower my cholesterol levels. There were several candidates, but she decided on a supplement from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, which she had heard of and trusted.
I bought it online and took 3 tablets every day. Six months later, in November of last year, she had a complete medical checkup, and found that her cholesterol level had decreased by 40 milligrams compared to the previous year, indicating that she felt it was “effective.”
However, about a month later, in December of the same year, something strange happened to his body. The “severe hangover-like symptoms” continued for about a month, and there were many days when he was in bed due to nausea and fatigue. Furthermore, foamy urine was observed, and the patient visited a nephrology department the following January. The creatinine level, which indicates a decline in kidney function, was more than four times the standard value.
The doctor asked him to go to a general hospital in a panic, and he was admitted to the hospital. As a result of the test, he was diagnosed with tubulointerstitial nephritis and was discharged from the hospital about three weeks later, but he still needs to take medication and visit the hospital once every two months.
It took two months from the time the problem was discovered until it was made public, and Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s initial response has been criticized as being delayed. The woman expressed her anger, saying, “It’s impossible for a pharmaceutical company that deals with human health not to take action immediately.If they had announced the incident sooner, many people could have avoided being harmed.”
His daily life changed completely due to the decline in his kidney function. Pay special attention to your meals. Limit natto to half a pack a day, and be sure to soak vegetables in water to reduce phosphorus and potassium. I also started to refrain from drinking alcohol. I loved eating, but I became afraid of eating at restaurants. Unable to go out to eat, which she had been looking forward to, she muttered, “I feel lonely.”
In September of this year, he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. “It’s like I’ve taken at least 400 pills of poison. There’s no cure. I have no choice but to live with the disease for the rest of my life.” I will be attending an information session by the “Red Yeast Supplement Damage Relief Lawyers Group,” which was formed by lawyers from the Osaka Bar Association, and will demand that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical provide thorough compensation in the future.
“I want them to return to their original bodies and lives. If that’s not possible, I want them to put the victim first and at least show some sincerity.”
Investigation into contamination routes continues
The reason behind the serious health damage caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s red yeast rice supplements is said to be a corporate culture that disregards safety during the manufacturing process.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare cultivated blue mold collected from the former Osaka factory (closed in December last year) and Wakayama factory, where the supplement was manufactured, and detected pueruric acid, which can cause kidney damage. It is assumed that the blue mold in the factory got mixed in through some route during the cultivation stage of the red malt raw material.
According to the report of the “Fact Verification Committee” that investigated this issue, factory officials testified to the fact that blue mold had adhered to the inside of the lid of the red malt tank when interviewed by the committee. When he brought this up to the quality control person, he was told that “blue mold may be mixed in to some extent.” There was also testimony that the dryer in the factory was broken and the red yeast rice raw material was left undried for a certain period of time.
On the 10th of this month, the city of Osaka, where Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s head office is located, determined that the health hazards caused by the supplement constituted food poisoning under the Food Sanitation Act. The company plans to continue investigating to determine the scale of the damage, the route of contamination, and the timing, and compile the results by the end of the fiscal year.
According to an analysis by the Japanese Society of Nephrology, many patients who developed kidney damage after taking supplements had “Fanconi syndrome,” in which renal tubules are damaged and necessary components cannot be reabsorbed.
According to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s report to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, as of the 24th, 121 people are being investigated for causality because they died after taking the supplement. According to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, as of the 27th, a total of 324 people had been hospitalized for kidney-related diseases after taking the supplement, and about 1,500 people had visited the hospital. (Rintaro Kinoshita)
Source: Japanese