"No Issues With New Drug Approval"?… Examining the Indictment and Ruling

[Anchor]

The CEO of the new drug development company Genencel, whom we met, claimed that he never lobbied or made improper requests to Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won, and that there were no problems in the process of getting the clinical trial plan approved. However, court rulings and transcripts that have already been made public contain accounts that completely contradict this claim.

Reporter Kim Deok-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

In December 2024, the court of first instance found Genencel CEO Kang guilty of some charges and sentenced him to three years in prison suspended for five years.

The court determined that Kang obstructed official procedures leading up to the approval of the new drug's clinical trial plan by using deceit, namely fabricated data.

When securing the relevant patent, he fabricated documents to make it look like hamster experiments had been conducted even though they had not. During the approval process, the court ruled that he submitted false reports omitting suspected side effects, such as the death of hamsters administered with the therapeutic substance.

While Kang maintains there were no issues in the experiments and approval application process related to the clinical trials, the first-instance court's judgment was different.

The remark conveyed by Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won to the Minister of Food and Drug Safety at the time—expressing concern over a "drain of national wealth"—does not align with the first-instance court's view that Genencel's patent and clinical trials related to the treatment were based on false data.

Kang claims he has never met nominee Kim and that it was a normal petition procedure.

[Kang / CEO of Genencel (Voice): I have no relation whatsoever with lawmaker Kim Seung-won. Lobbying or improper requests? I hate those things to begin with and have never done them. I have never met him nor have I ever spoken to him directly on the phone.]

According to the prosecution's indictment, Kang suggested several times to businessman Yang that if Yang helped secure approval for the clinical trial plan through political figures, he would provide financial assistance in return.

[Conversation between businessman Yang and an acquaintance (November 26, 2021) (Voice): Professor (Kang) sent KakaoTalk messages saying, "Please hurry up the matter with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety," and "Please push it again," and those messages are on KakaoTalk....]

The prosecution also uncovered circumstances indicating that following the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's approval, Kang attempted to wire 5 million won to nominee Kim's political donation account.

In addition, regarding the fact that Kang contacted Yang, sending him 100 million won and telling him to "buy the shares since the stock price will rise" just a day after signing a contract for Kosdaq-listed company Sejong Medical to acquire 6.3 billion won worth of Kang's Genencel shares, the court of first instance delivered a guilty verdict for the use of undisclosed information.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Lee Chan-su | Video by So Ji-hye | Graphics by Seo Seung-hyun
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.