Japan's Kobayashi Pharmaceutical suspends sales of three oral care products

On September 13, Japan's Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company announced the suspension of sales of three oral care products, namely dental floss, interdental brushes and retainer cleaning solution. This decision was triggered by the problem of consumers' health being damaged by health products containing red yeast rice produced by the company.

Previously, the Japan Dental Association had withdrawn its recommendation for these three oral care products. Since the packaging of these products is printed with the words "Recommended by the Japan Dental Association", Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has decided to take them off the shelves and resell them after removing the above words on the outer packaging. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company emphasizes that there is no problem with the quality and safety of these oral care products.

However, the Japan Dental Association pointed out that in the incident of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's health products containing red yeast rice, the cause of consumers' health damage has still not been fully identified, and there is no perfect response plan. The association believes that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical does not meet the relevant review conditions for product safety and therefore withdraws its recommendation. At the end of March this year, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced that its health products containing red yeast rice may cause damage to consumers' health. According to the latest data released by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as of September 9, among consumers who took the problematic health products, 391 people have died, 2,426 people have sought medical treatment, and 498 people have been hospitalized. Kobayashi Ichiyasu, the then chairman of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, and Kobayashi Akihiro, the president, resigned in July due to taking responsibility. This incident has aroused widespread public concern and worry about Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's products. How the company will deal with the crisis and regain consumers' trust in the future will be a major challenge it faces.