Photo/Illutration Kazumasa Kobayashi stepped down as chairman of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The top two executives of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. are stepping down to take responsibility for the numerous health problems and deaths caused by the company's benikoji red yeast supplements.

The board of directors on July 23 approved 84-year-old Kazumasa Kobayashi's resignation as chairman and decided that Satoshi Yamane, 64, senior executive director, will replace President Akihiro Kobayashi, 53, on Aug. 8.   

The younger Kobayashi will also voluntarily return half of his monthly salary for six months. 

Yamane will be the first company president who is not part of the Kobayashi family. The title was handed down within the family until now.

Akihiro Kobayashi will stay on the board of directors and continue to oversee the reimbursement of affected customers' medical bills.

Multiple cases of kidney disease were reported after customers took the company's supplement benikoji, which is purported to lower cholesterol. The number of deaths under investigation in relation to the product was 96 as of July 18.

During its investigation, the health ministry found three outlying substances in the supplement. One was toxic puberulic acid that is derived from blue mold, which was also discovered at two plants. 

The ministry found blue mold growing in the inoculation cultivation room of the company’s Osaka plant. It was also present at the Wakayama plant—which began producing the supplement in January—in the drying room and on incubation tanks' lids. 

Another aspect of the scandal is that the company waited around two months before disclosing there was an issue with its benikoji supplements after a doctor first called attention to the problem in mid-January.

External lawyers formed an investigative committee and are reviewing whether the Kobayashi Pharma's response was appropriate for the situation.

The committee released its report on July 23. 

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