Kobayashi Pharmaceutical: Drugmaker’s Corporate Culture of Disregard for Safety Is Egregious

Editorial

15:39 JST, July 25, 2024

Even though a drugmaker manufactures supplements intended to help maintain good health, it is unforgivable that the company has continued to disregard the safety of consumers in dealing with health problems involving its own products.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. has announced that Chairman Kazumasa Kobayashi and President Akihiro Kobayashi, both from the company’s founding family, will resign to take responsibility for a spate of health problems caused by its supplements containing benikoji red rice mold. The company has also released an investigation report on the matter by outside lawyers.

Senior Executive Director Satoshi Yamane will be promoted to be the next president as of Aug. 8. The company said it will be the first time for the post to be filled by someone outside the founding family.

The investigation report firstly pointed to a slow initial response, including delays in disclosing the health problems and recalling the products in question.

Although Kobayashi Pharmaceutical became aware of the health problems caused by its supplements in mid-January, it did not report the matter to the government or announce a voluntary recall of the products until late March.

The investigation report stated that the company “failed to make the safety of consumers its top priority,” with criticism that this was “an emergency that should have been addressed immediately by the company as a whole” in early February at the latest.

Despite health problems having spread, the company’s response significantly lacked a sense of urgency. From the beginning, President Kobayashi failed to take the lead to deal with the problems and did not even set up a crisis management headquarters, according to the investigation report. The functional failure of corporate governance is obvious.

The corporate culture of disregard for safety is also serious. The company arbitrarily interpreted its duty of reporting to the government to be limited to cases where there is a clear causal relationship between products and health problems.

In addition, records of a meeting of management to discuss whether reporting to the government was necessary included a description that the company would make the decision by “taking into consideration reputational risks and business impacts.” It would be outrageous if reporting to the government was delayed for fear of worsening business performance.

The investigation report also said that an interview survey of employees revealed sloppy management of the manufacturing process.

Blue mold, which is suspected to be related to the health problems, was detected inside a benikoji culture tank at a factory, but the person in charge at the time left the matter unattended, saying that blue mold could be mixed in to some extent.

The quality control system needs to be thoroughly revised.

The company’s attitude of not fulfilling its accountability cannot be overlooked as well.

Consumers are highly concerned about the supplements, as an investigation is still underway as to the causal relationship between the supplements and the ailments of the about 100 people who died. But Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s latest move was only to announce the change in top management, without holding a press conference.

It is quite natural for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to compile measures to prevent a recurrence. The company should hold a press conference and talk about how it is thinking about the causes and background that led to such a situation.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 25, 2024)