Kim Seung-won Favoritism Allegations Spark Clash Over Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Approval

[Anchor]

During a parliamentary session today, the Minister of Food and Drug Safety faced a barrage of questions regarding the alleged lobbying suspicions involving nominee for Minister of Justice Kim Seung-won. The People Power Party pressured Kim to apologize, claiming that a single phone call from him granted the company a fast-track approval from the Ministry. The head of the Ministry countered, stating that there was no preferential treatment.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the details.

[Reporter]

At today's full meeting of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee.

Although bill reviews were scheduled, the controversy surrounding nominee Kim Seung-won and the alleged lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety emerged as the main issue.

[Choi Bo-yoon / People Power Agency Member]: "Are we to understand that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety became a power-tailored regulatory agency that granted a fast-track approval despite inadequate documentation with just a single phone call from an influential politician...?"

[Seo Young-seok / Democratic Party Member]: "Wasn't this cleared of charges after being thoroughly investigated for two years during the previous administration?"

Questions also concentrated on yesterday's exclusive SBS report detailing that after Genencel, a new drug development company, received clinical trial plan approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in October 2021, it sought 32. billion won in government subsidies starting that December. At the time, the Ministry of Health and Welfare rejected the support five times, citing insufficient evidence of efficacy or low potential for new drug development.

[Han Ji-a / People Power Party Member]: "(The Ministry of Health and Welfare and) the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety reached different conclusions. The difference lies in whether nominee Kim Seung-won made a request or not, regarding the efficacy of the same non-clinical and animal studies."

[Jeong Eun-kyeong / Minister of Health and Welfare]: "The evaluations for the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's clinical trial plan approval and the Ministry of Health and Welfare's R&D research funding support have different purposes and evaluation criteria..."

Oh Yu-kyung, head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety who took office seven months after the approval, drew a line by stating that there was no preferential treatment whatsoever during the approval process at the time, and that Genencel was responsible for receiving approval through false reports.

[Oh Yu-kyung / Minister of Food and Drug Safety]: "It was the fault of (Genencel founder) Kang Se-chan, and that was his deceit; it was an issue that Ministry of Food and Drug Safety officials could not have evaluated up to that point..."

A shareholder of Sejong Medical, a Kosdaq-listed company that invested in Genencel, held a press conference at the National Assembly today, urging a clear revelation of the truth behind the stock manipulation suspicions and the role played by nominee Kim during the Ministry's approval process.

(Video by Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing by Won Hyung-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.