Tokyo, Mar 29 (EFE).- Japanese company Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced Friday that one more person died from kidney disease after consuming the company's dietary supplements containing red yeast rice, raising the toll linked to the disease to five.

Those who died specifically consumed a cholesterol-lowering supplement withdrawn from the market last week along with other products by the company, which is investigating the cases due to suspicions of a causal link between the product and deaths.

Another 100 people have been hospitalized with kidney problems after ingesting the company's products, although their condition is unknown, nor is there public data on other consumers who suffered health problems possibly caused by the supplements without being admitted to medical centers.

The health problems are believed to have been caused by products containing red yeast rice, or "beni-koji" in Japanese, a variety of this cereal that turns a reddish color when fermented.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical withdrew five products from the market, including 300,000 containers of the aforementioned tablets sold as a supplement to reduce cholesterol, of which the firm had sold 1.06 million containers until last month since its launch in 2021.

The company launched an investigation after being notified by a doctor of health problems apparently related to the consumption of its products, including symptoms such as fatigue or kidney dysfunction.

In addition to the products, the company distributed red yeast rice to 52 other national and foreign companies, to which it has asked to withdraw the products in case they could also be laced with an unknown harmful ingredient, although no problems have been reported abroad until now.

Another 173 companies would buy through those 50, including a bakery chain. EFE

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