Do some research on where...

Lovastatin came from...

"Lovastatin was isolated from a strain of Aspergillus terreus"

Seems to me that the pharmaceutical drug was isolated from a fungus...

From UCLA...

"Red yeast rice is a traditional food consumed throughout Asia. Its food value and medicinal value is believed to date back more than a thousand years, with the first documentation of its use recorded in 800 A.D. The fungus Monascus isolated from red yeast rice first became known in Western society through the work of Dutch scientists, who noted its use by local populations in Java in 1884. A species isolated from red Koji or Honqu (as red rice yeast is known in East Asia) was named Monascus Purpureus Went in 1895, in recognition of the purple coloration. Today there are more than 30 Monascus strains on deposit with the American Type Culture Collection."

The fungus could be the ingredient that makes the red yeast rice efficacious.

Sounds to me like all this is a ploy to demonize natural supplements and nothing more by implying that the pharmaceutical was added too, or contaminated the natural supplement. Think about WHERE pharmaceuticals come from... they are most often isolated extracts from plants and/or fungi etc., that are then chemically reproduced in the lab and patented.

These types of articles are pharmaceutical double speak big time whose sole intent is to strike fear of supplements in those who do not know any better. Tweet