'Invossa Suspicion' Former Kolon Chairman Lee Woong-yeol's Warrant Hearing Postponed to 30th

Lee Woong-yeol, former chairman of Kolon Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The pre-trial detention hearing for former Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeol (64), who has had an arrest warrant requested amid suspicions surrounding the osteoarthritis treatment Invossa-K Injection (Invossa), has been postponed by one day and will be held on the 30th.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office announced on the 29th that the pre-trial detention hearing for former Chairman Lee, which was scheduled to be held in the morning at the Seoul Central District Court before Judge Kim Dong-hyun, in charge of warrants, has been postponed to the following day.

According to the prosecution, former Chairman Lee is suspected of manufacturing and selling Invossa with kidney-derived cells, despite having obtained product approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for the second component of Invossa as cartilage cells. He is also suspected of submitting false documents to obtain MFDS approval.

Invossa is an injectable treatment for osteoarthritis composed of two components: the first contains human cartilage cells, and the second contains genetically modified cells introduced with cartilage cell growth factor (TGF-β1).

It was approved by the MFDS in 2017 as the first gene therapy in South Korea, but after it was revealed that the genetically modified cells in the second component were kidney cells capable of causing tumors, not cartilage cells as stated in the submitted documents at the time of approval, the approval was finally revoked in July of last year.

The prosecution included allegations of unfair trading and market manipulation under the Capital Markets Act in the warrant, believing that former Chairman Lee was also involved in the listing of Kolon TissueGene.

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