Two Months After Approval, Flagged as "Insufficient": Ministry of Health Refused 32.8 Billion Won in Support

[Anchor]

We continue with our coverage of the allegations that Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of Justice, lobbied the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Just two months after obtaining clinical trial approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Kang Se-chan, the founder of a new drug development company, attempted to secure 32 billion won in government subsidies related to the new drug. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which was in charge of the evaluation at the time, rejected the support five times, citing a lack of evidence regarding actual efficacy. This raises the question: How was the approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety granted in the first place?

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has this exclusive report.

[Reporter]

Kang Se-chan, founder of Genencell, a COVID-19 therapeutic development company, applied five times starting December 6, 2021, for a government subsidy project through which the Ministry of Health and Welfare provided clinical trial cost support to COVID-19 therapeutic development companies.

This came 41 days after October 26 of the same year, when the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the clinical trial plan for the new drug, following a request made through businessman Yang to Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of Justice, for a "speedy process" regarding the approval.

The total amount of subsidies applied for across the five attempts was 32 billion won.

This is the reason for non-selection document obtained by SBS regarding Genencell's application for clinical trial subsidies from the Ministry of Health and Welfare's New Drug Development Project Group.

The first application was rejected on the grounds that "the evidence for the mechanism of action and non-clinical efficacy is insufficient." From the second application up to the fifth application in September 2022, support was denied every time due to reasons such as "weak evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in animal tests" and "no significant non-clinical efficacy data."

The Ministry of Health and Welfare's conclusion that Genencell's COVID-19 treatment had a "low possibility of development" starkly contrasts with the judgment of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which had approved the clinical trial plan.

Prosecutors concluded that Kang's subsidy applications were based on false reports and indicted him in 2024 on charges of attempted fraud. However, Kang stated the following when he met with SBS:

[Kang Se-chan / Founder of Genencell: Is everyone who fails a national project application because their data is insufficient considered a fraudster? If so, wouldn't all professors in our country be fraudsters?]

However, the court of first instance judged him guilty, stating that it was a case where he attempted to receive government funds using a "research and development plan containing false facts and omitting side effects," but the attempt ended in failure.

[Han Ji-a / Member of the People Power Party: The Ministry of Health and Welfare must provide a clear explanation as to why the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety reached a different conclusion on matters that the Ministry of Health and Welfare judged to lack medicinal efficacy.]

Questions are mounting over what basis the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety used to grant its approval, unlike the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

(Video reporting: Kim Yong-woo, Seol Chi-hwan | Video editing: Seunghee | Design: Lim Chan-hyuk | Data courtesy of the office of Representative Han Ji-a of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.