Lee Woo-seok, Kolon Life Science CEO, Faces Second Detention Hearing... Warrant Review on 31st

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The decision on whether to detain Lee Woo-seok, CEO of Kolon Life Science, the domestic developer of the osteoarthritis gene therapy drug Invossa-K, will be made on the 31st amid suspicions surrounding Invossa.

Myung Jae-kwon, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, will conduct a pre-detention suspect interrogation (warrant substantive examination) for Lee at 10:30 a.m. on the same day and review the necessity of detention. The charges include violations of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, the Capital Markets Act, and the Subsidy Management Act. This is the second time Lee has undergone a warrant substantive examination. The Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kang Ji-sung) requested an arrest warrant for Lee on the 24th of last month, but it was dismissed. Through supplementary investigations, the prosecution detected circumstances indicating Lee's involvement in fabricating documents by Kolon Life Science to secure 8.2 billion KRW in subsidies after being selected in October 2015 for the government's global advanced biopharmaceutical technology development project, and added charges of violating the Subsidy Management Act before reapplying for the warrant.

Lee is suspected of knowing that Invossa contained kidney-derived cells, which could potentially cause tumors, instead of the originally planned cartilage cells, but concealed this fact and submitted false documents to obtain approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). He is also suspected of involvement in Kolon TissueGene's 'stock listing fraud.' Earlier, the prosecution arrested and indicted key personnel responsible for practical operations, including Jo, director in charge of clinical development at Kolon Life Science; Yang, head of the management support division; and Kwon, chief financial officer (CFO) of Kolon TissueGene.

Meanwhile, Invossa is an osteoarthritis gene therapy injection composed of two components: the first containing human cartilage cells and the second containing genetically modified cells introduced with cartilage cell growth factor (TGF-β1). It was approved by the MFDS in 2017 as the first gene therapy drug in South Korea.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.