The Japanese pharmaceutical group Osaka-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Japan is located in the center of a large health facility scandal in the country, with focus food supplements anti-cholesterol, which contain red yeast rice.

The group announced today that it is investigating one fifth death which may be associated with its supplements while the number of people who are hospitalized in Japan under this case has increased to 114. Patients mainly present renal failure.

A case of hospitalization in Taiwan, which may also be linked to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s dietary supplements, was also reported yesterday, Thursday, by local media. If this link is confirmed, it would be the first known case outside of Japan.

“I deeply apologize for the great concern we have caused,” the family-owned conglomerate’s chairman, Akihiro Kobayashi, said today, bowing before the cameras along with other directors of his company in a sign of contrition.

He also said he was “regretful” that the company did not address the issue until late last week, when it announced the recall of three product lines, despite having received a first notice from a doctor already from January 15th.

He also announced that he wants to compensate persons who experience side effects or are hospitalized after consuming their own dietary supplements.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Group and Japanese health authorities are still trying to identify which substance in the red rice yeast (called “beni koji”) in the dietary supplements may be responsible for the hospitalizations and deaths.

The business admitted this week that it also supplied red rice yeast to approx fifty other companies in Japan, as well as two Taiwanese businesses.

As a precaution, many of these companies have in turn issued recalls of their own products containing this yeast, such as carbonated sake, various salad dressings or miso, a pasty substance made from soybeans that have undergone fermentation.