Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. said Tuesday it has newly found 11 more fatalities that should have been reported to Japan’s health ministry over possible links to supplement products containing its “beni koji” red fermented rice.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. said Thursday that it has decided to pull out of its business related to “beni koji” red fermented rice, following widespread health problems blamed on its supplement products containing the substance.
The number of ambulance dispatches in Tokyo in January-July grew 4.4 pct from a year before to 542,256, highest for the seven-month period since the statistics began in 1936, according to the Tokyo Fire Department. The result is attributable mainly to an increase in people suffering from heatstroke.
A Japanese health ministry panel gave the green light Thursday for the manufacture and sale of the Alzheimer’s drug donanemab-azbt, developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.
After the soon-to-come formal approval by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the drug, under the brand name Kisunla, will become the second medicine available in Japan for treating early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. The drug works by removing accumulated amyloid beta proteins in the brain, slowing the progress of the disease.
Over 12,000 people in Japan were sent to hospital due to heatstroke in the week that ended on Sunday, the largest weekly total since this year’s tally began on April 29, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday.
The European Medicines Agency has said that its committee for assessing medicines recommended “not granting a marketing authorization” to Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab.
According to the announcement by the EMA, which is under the European Union, on Friday, the committee pointed out that the effect of lecanemab, developed jointly by Japan’s Eisai Co. and U.S. drugmaker Biogen Inc., in delaying cognitive decline “does not counterbalance” the risk of serious side events, such as bleeding in the brain.
Japan’s Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. said Friday that it has failed to report to the health ministry some products containing its “beni koji” red fermented rice that were supplied to five companies. According to the ministry, none of the five companies’ products are marketed any longer. The ministry asked Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to report by Wednesday whether there are any beni koji-containing products subject to the reporting other than those of the five companies.
More than half of Japanese elementary and junior high school students are “underhydrated,” a research team led by Niigata University has found.
Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Keizo Takemi and Lei Haichao, head of China’s National Health Commission, met in Beijing on Friday and agreed to promote cooperation in the areas of medical and nursing care services.
Takemi and Lei also discussed measures to deal with population aging, a common challenge facing their countries.
The number of deaths under investigation over possible links to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s supplements containing “beni koji” red fermented rice reached 97, Japan’s health ministry said Monday.
Barrier Free Japan