The Facts

• The chairman and president of Japanese drug manufacturer Kobayashi Pharmaceutical have stepped down amid an investigation into whether their dietary supplements are linked to hundreds of deaths.

• Company Chairman Kazumasa Kobayashi stepped down Tuesday but will stay at the firm as an advisor. His son and president of the company, Akihiro Kobayashi, will also resign but maintain a role to help compensate potential victims.

• The cholesterol-lowering diet pills are made from red yeast rice called beni koji, which has been proven to lower cholesterol but is also connected to organ damage. Reports of kidney failure in those who took the supplement emerged at the beginning of the year.