Yahoo TV

STORY: Health authorities searched a second Kobayashi Pharmaceutical factory in western Japan on Sunday.

After the company reported five deaths possibly tied to dietary supplements.

That’s according to officials.

This inspection in Wakayama prefecture follows one on Saturday in Osaka, expanding the investigation into the drugmaker's use of "Beni-Koji" red yeast materials.

The company said it found what appeared to be potentially toxic puberulic acid - that could have been produced by blue mould penicillium - in Beni-Koji materials produced between last April and October at the Osaka factory.

They said that as of Friday (March 29), 114 people had been hospitalized and five had died after taking the supplements.

The pills were marketed as helping lower cholesterol levels, they said.

A ministry official said the cause of the deaths has not been confirmed.

But he said “it is suspected that Beni-Koji may be the cause, so we have inspected two factories in two days."

Kobayashi said on Friday it was investigating a suspected link between the products and their effects on the kidney, since it received reports of kidney disease linked to the products.

The company said it would fully cooperate with the investigation so that “we can resolve the problems as early as possible.”