The health ministry revealed on Friday that there have been dozens more deaths potentially linked to beni kōji (red yeast rice) supplements sold by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, in addition to the five that had been previously confirmed.
Investigations for three cases have already been completed and no causal relationship with the supplements could be confirmed. The other 76 cases are still being probed.
Although the ministry had required the company to report to the public the number of cases in which negative health impacts were linked 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 only said that “there were cases under investigation” and did not report the new numbers until Friday.