The president and the chairperson of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical resigned Tuesday to take responsibility for numerous health problems and deaths that could be linked to its beni kōji red yeast rice supplements.
The Osaka-based drugmaker's Chairperson Kazumasa Kobayashi resigned from his post and as a board member effective from Tuesday, but will stay on as a special adviser. Akihiro Kobayashi, the son of Kazumasa and company's president since 2013, will step down as president but remain as a board member focusing on compensating victims. He will take on the role starting Aug. 8, the company announced on Tuesday. Both are members of the founding family.
Satoshi Yamane, a senior executive of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, will become the new president on Aug. 8, marking the first time in the company's 138-year-old history that someone outside the founding family will become the chief executive.