Exclusive: Approved Two Months Prior, Deemed "Insufficient"… Ministry of Health Refuses 32 Billion Won Support

[Anchor]

We continue with our coverage of the allegations surrounding Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won and his alleged lobbying of 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 a new drug just two months after obtaining clinical trial approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which was in charge of the review, rejected the application five times on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence of actual efficacy. This raises the question of how the drug passed the earlier approval process by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has our exclusive report.

[Reporter]

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

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

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

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

The first application was rejected on the grounds that "the evidence of the mechanism of action and non-clinical efficacy was insufficient." From the second application through the fifth application in September 2022, support was denied every time due to reasons such as "weak evidence of efficacy 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 "low development potential" stands in stark contrast to 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. When meeting with SBS, Kang defended himself as follows:

[Kang Se-chan / Founder of Genencell: "If you fail to win a national project because your data is insufficient, does that make it all fraud? Then all professors in our country would be fraudsters?"]

However, the court of first instance delivered a guilty verdict, stating that it was a case where an attempt was made to receive government funds using a "research and development plan containing false facts and omitting side effects," though the crime ended in an attempt.

[Han Ji-a / People Power Party Representative: "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 efficacy."]

Suspicion is growing over what grounds the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety used to grant its approval, contrasting with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

(Design: Lim Chan-hyuk, Photo 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.