Why would supplement companies need to adulterate red yeast rice with a prescription drug?

One of the most puzzling things about this story is why supplement dealers would adulterate red yeast rice with Mevacor - since red yeast rice itself has "natural statins" that work to lower cholesterol (one of these components is chemically identical to the drug Lovastatin).

Considering that three separate companies sold the contaminated product, maybe they all bought red yeast rice from a common source. Red yeast rice is a staple in China and other Asian countries - so possibly a sleazy company abroad decided to substitute Mevacor for some ingredient in the supplement (if the real thing wasn't available or was more expensive than generic Mevacor). We've seen this happen with contaminated gluten from China, which was imported by one U.S. company and then distributed by several pet food makers.

Nice oversight by the supplement dealers! (If these are "reliable" companies, you wonder why the smaller, more obscure ones are up to).

What's especially nasty is that people who use these products have no defense against possible side effects. I'd be loathe to take statin drugs myself, because of potential liver or other problems, but at least the people I know who do take them are forwarned of possible side effects and (for example) get liver tests to make sure damage isn't occurring. The guinea pigs taking these supplements had no way of knowing what they were getting into, couldn't avoid possible interactions with other drugs or take blood tests to protect themselves.

These companies deserve stiff fines at the least for their carelessness (if that's all it is). Not that that's very likely to happen. Tweet