Kim Seung-won Explained It Was 'To Prevent Interference and Delays'... But the Company Faked Experiments

[Anchor]

We continue with breaking news on the vetting of a ministerial nominee. Nominee for Minister of Justice Kim Seung-won has explained regarding allegations of lobbying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety that his intention was to prevent the process from being delayed, as multinational companies were hindering domestic firms' development. However, Genencell, the new drug development company in question, was found to have obtained a patent by mobilizing fabricated data and submitted false experimental results when securing clinical trial approval.

First, Reporter Kim Deok-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

Meeting reporters again on his way to work today (Sept. 7), four days later, Justice Minister Nominee Kim Seung-won.

Regarding allegations that he lobbied for the approval of a clinical trial plan for the COVID-19 treatment developer Genencell, he stated, "I should have been more cautious in delivering the civil complaint," while adding the explanation that, "Through various channels, I received answers that it could help treat COVID-19."

[Kim Seung-won / Nominee for Minister of Justice: There was also information that multinational companies were obstructing domestic pharmaceutical companies from developing COVID-19 treatments, so the intent was to have it processed promptly....]

According to prosecutors' indictments and court rulings, Nominee Kim received a call from an individual surnamed Yang asking for assistance with a swift process regarding approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and also received materials related to Genencell's clinical trials.

Nominee Kim then sent a text message to then-Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Chief Kim Gang-lip asking for a prompt process, stating, "I am worried about the leakage of national wealth."

Then, what was the reality of Genencell?

According to the first-instance ruling against Genencell founder Kang, founder Kang fabricated data in January 2021 as if a hamster experiment, which was never actually conducted, had been performed, thereby obtaining a patent for a COVID-19 treatment ingredient.

Later, during the process of approving the clinical trial plan, when the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation requested supplementary data in June 2021 stating that "data on the mechanism of action related to COVID-19 is insufficient," Genencell submitted manipulated data to gain approval.

While Nominee Kim maintains that he delivered the complaint for the sake of COVID-19 treatment, the fact that there were problems with Genencell's patent acquisition and clinical trial approval was revealed through a court ruling in 2024.

Suspicions have also been raised that Nominee Kim's contact may have been one of the factors that prevented the authorities' verification—which should have caught the manipulated data—from functioning properly at the time.

This is because additional suspicions were raised that following Nominee Kim's contact with the MFDS chief, the chief's secretary sent a "pressuring text message" to a frontline division head who held the authority for final decisions on clinical trials within the ministry.

(Video Editing: Nam Il | Design: Yang Gi-tae, Seo Seung-hyun)

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