Japanese Firm to Pay L-tryptophan Award

A Japanese chemical manufacturer was ordered to pay more than $2 million to four people who used L-tryptophan, a food supplement linked to a rare blood disorder that killed at least 27 people.

The state arbitration panel’s order late Monday was the nation’s first damage award against manufacturer Showa Denko Co., said Turner Branch of Albuquerque, N.M., vice chairman of a steering committee for attorneys representing L-tryptophan victims.

The Food and Drug Administration ordered all products containing L-tryptophan off the market in the spring of 1990 after users came down with the blood disorder.