"Toothless Audit Without Witnesses" vs. "Investigation Closed": Clash Over Genencell

[Anchor]

During today's (October 13) parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Genencell—a drug development company linked to allegations of improper solicitation to the ministry involving former Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won—emerged as the key bone of contention. The People Power Party criticized the Democratic Party for refusing to adopt witnesses, while the Democratic Party countered that the case has already been investigated and closed.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an reports.

[Reporter]

At today's parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The ruling and opposition parties clashed from the start over protest signs displayed by opposition lawmakers, who argued that the audit had been rendered "toothless" after key witnesses were omitted due to the ruling party's objection.

[Seo Young-seok / Democratic Party Lawmaker: "We believed that 'it is not appropriate to turn this into a venue for political offensives'...."]

[Baek Jong-heon / People Power Party Lawmaker: "The witnesses requested to clarify the background behind the approval of Genencell's clinical trial were not adopted due to the Democratic Party's opposition."]

SBS reported yesterday that Genencell, a drug development company, submitted a document to the food and drug safety ministry after drastically cutting a 17-page laboratory test report down to six pages to delete findings unfavorable to securing approval for its clinical trial plan. The ruling and opposition parties clashed over whether the responsibility also lies with the food and drug safety ministry or solely with the company.

[Lee Man-hee / People Power Party Lawmaker (Chair of Health and Welfare Committee): "You (the ministry) reviewed whether or not to approve the clinical trial based on those six pages of data."]

[Nam In-soon / Democratic Party Lawmaker: "It is true that Genencell did wrong. (However,) when submitting materials to the ministry, it was Genencell that submitted them, wasn't it?"]

The opposition party argued that the ministry failed to filter out the falsified report because solicitation by former Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won was at play.

[Lee Dal-hee / People Power Party Lawmaker: "This became a reason for (the ministry) to face immense distrust—leading people to think that if one submits a fabricated report, it gets approved."]

The ruling party countered that the case had already been fully investigated by prosecutors under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

[Heo Jong-sik / Democratic Party Lawmaker: "This is a case that was investigated for three years by the prosecution under that high-and-mighty Yoon Suk Yeol and Han Dong-hoon, isn't it?"]

Minister of Food and Drug Safety Oh Yu-kyoung stated that she feels regret and takes seriously the criticism that public trust in the ministry has eroded due to this controversy, adding that the ministry has commissioned a policy study to verify the credibility of submitted materials.

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Yoo Mi-ra)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.