'Invossa Suspicion' Lee Woo-seok, Kolon Life Science CEO, Appears for Warrant Hearing

Second Arrest Warrant... Silent Response to Questions

Lee Woo-seok, CEO of Kolon Life Science, who is suspected of being involved in the controversy surrounding the osteoarthritis gene therapy 'Invossa K Injection (Invossa)', is attending the pre-arrest detention hearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 31st. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Lee Woo-seok, CEO of Kolon Life Science, the domestic developer of the osteoarthritis gene therapy drug Invossa-K, appeared once again at court on the 31st for a pre-arrest detention hearing (warrant review) amid suspicions surrounding Invossa. This comes about a month after the arrest warrant requested on the 28th of last month was dismissed.

CEO Lee arrived at the Seoul Central District Court building around 10:15 a.m. that day. He did not respond to reporters' questions such as "Did you know that the components of Invossa had changed?" or "Do you admit to the additional charges of violating the Subsidy Management Act?" From 10:30 a.m., he underwent the warrant review hearing presided over by Judge Myeong Jae-kwon, who is in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court. The charges include violations of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, the Capital Markets Act, and the Subsidy Management Act. The decision on detention is expected late at night.

The Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kang Ji-sung) re-requested an arrest warrant for CEO Lee on the 28th. The first warrant request was made on the 24th of last month but was dismissed by the court. Through supplementary investigations, the prosecution uncovered evidence that CEO Lee was involved in the process where Kolon Life Science fabricated documents to be selected for the government's Global Advanced Biopharmaceutical Technology Development Project in October 2015, receiving 8.2 billion KRW in subsidies, and added charges of violating the Subsidy Management Act.

CEO Lee is suspected of knowing that Invossa contained kidney-derived cells, which could 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 the "stock listing fraud" of Kolon TissueGene. Previously, the prosecution arrested and indicted key personnel responsible for clinical development at Kolon Life Science, including Director Jo, Head of Management Support Yang, and Kolon TissueGene CFO Kwon.

Meanwhile, Invossa is an osteoarthritis gene therapy injection composed of two components: Component 1 containing human cartilage cells and Component 2 containing genetically modified cells introduced with cartilage cell growth factor (TGF-β1). It was the first gene therapy approved by the MFDS in Korea in 2017. However, Component 2 was found to contain kidney cells capable of causing tumors, not cartilage cells as stated in the approval documents, leading to the final cancellation of its approval in July last year.

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