Former Kolon Chairman Lee Woong-yeol's Warrant Hearing on the Morning of the 29th

Former Chairman Lee Woong-yeol of Kolon Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Sung-pil] The decision on whether to detain former Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeol (63) is expected to be made on the 29th.

According to the court on the 26th, Judge Kim Dong-hyun, who is in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, will hold a detention hearing (warrant substantive examination) for former Chairman Lee at 9:30 a.m. on the 29th in Courtroom 319 of the West Building of the Seoul Court Complex to review the necessity of detention. The decision on detention is expected to be made late that afternoon or early the next morning.

The Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Chang-soo) filed a detention warrant for former Chairman Lee the previous day on charges including violation of the Capital Markets and Financial Investment Business Act (fraudulent transactions, market manipulation, etc.) and breach of trust and mediation.

Former Chairman Lee is accused of manufacturing and selling Invossa with a 'kidney-derived cell (GP2-293)' component, which differs from the approved 'cartilage cell' component, despite having received product approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for the Invossa second component as 'cartilage cells' from November 2017 to March last year.

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). This injection was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2017 as the first gene therapy in Korea. However, after it was revealed that the genetically modified cells in the second component were kidney cells capable of causing tumors, not the cartilage cells stated in the submitted approval documents, the approval was finally revoked in July last year.

Former Chairman Lee is also accused of knowing in July 2017 that Invossa contained kidney-derived cells instead of cartilage cells but concealing this fact and submitting false documents to obtain approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The prosecution believes that former Chairman Lee 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, supported by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's approval of Invossa.

The prosecution suspects that former Chairman Lee was involved and received reports regarding Kolon TissueGene's use of false documents submitted during Invossa's approval process by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to facilitate the stock listing.

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