Prosecutors Request Arrest Warrant for Former Kolon Chairman Lee Woong-yeol over 'Invossa Suspicion' (Update 2)

Lee Woong-yeol, Chairman of Kolon Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for Lee Woong-yeol, the former chairman of Kolon Group (63), who is considered the ultimate person responsible for the suspicions surrounding the osteoarthritis gene therapy drug Invossa-K Injection (Invossa).

It has been about a year since the full-scale investigation began in June last year.

The Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Chang-soo) announced on the afternoon of the 25th that it had requested an arrest warrant for the former chairman on charges including violations of the Capital Markets and Financial Investment Services Act (fraudulent transactions, market manipulation, etc.) and breach of trust and mediation.

The former chairman is suspected of manufacturing and selling Invossa with a 'kidney-derived cell (GP2-293)' component, which differs from the approved 'chondrocyte' component for the second vial of Invossa granted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety from November 2017 to March last year.

Invossa is an osteoarthritis gene therapy injection composed of vial 1 containing human chondrocytes and vial 2 containing genetically modified cells introduced with chondrocyte growth factor (TGF-β1).

This injection was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2017 as the first gene therapy in Korea, but after it was revealed that the genetically modified cells in vial 2 were kidney cells that could cause tumors, not chondrocytes as stated in the submitted data at the time of approval, the approval was finally revoked in July last year.

The former chairman is also suspected of knowing in July 2017 that Invossa contained kidney-derived cells instead of chondrocytes, hiding this fact, and submitting false documents to obtain approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The prosecution believes that the former chairman was also involved in Kolon TissueGene's 'stock listing fraud.' Kolon TissueGene, a subsidiary of Kolon Life Science that led the development of Invossa, was listed on the KOSDAQ market in 2017, leveraging the approval of Invossa by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The prosecution suspects that the former chairman was involved in using false documents submitted at the time of Invossa's approval by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for the stock listing of Kolon TissueGene and received reports about this.

The prosecution summoned the former chairman as a suspect for questioning on the 18th. This was the first time the former chairman appeared before the prosecution regarding the Invossa suspicions since the investigation began in June last year.

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