Former Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeol Appears for Warrant Hearing... "I Am Sorry"

Former Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeol, who has been under prosecution investigation over suspicions related to the osteoarthritis gene therapy drug Invossa-K, is entering the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on the 30th to undergo a pre-arrest detention hearing (warrant review).
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Lee Woong-yeol, former chairman of Kolon Group (64), who has been indicted on suspicion surrounding the osteoarthritis treatment drug Invossa K Injection (Invossa), appeared at the court on the 30th to undergo a pre-trial detention hearing (warrant substantive examination).

Around 9:10 a.m. that day, Lee arrived at the Seoul Court Complex and briefly said "I'm sorry" to the waiting press before entering the courtroom.

The warrant substantive examination began at 9:30 a.m. under the presiding of Judge Kim Dong-hyun, who is in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court.

Judge Kim listens to the arguments from both the prosecution and the defense in court, reviews the submitted materials, and then decides whether to grant detention.

The decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Lee is expected to be made late that afternoon or early the next morning.

Earlier, the Criminal Division 2 (Chief Prosecutor Lee Chang-soo) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office filed an arrest warrant on the 25th against Lee on charges including violation of the Capital Markets and Financial Investment Business Act (fraudulent trading, market manipulation) and breach of trust and mediation.

The warrant substantive examination was originally scheduled for the previous day but was postponed by one day at Lee's request.

According to the prosecution, 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 for the second component of Invossa as cartilage cells. He is also suspected of submitting false documents to obtain approval from the Ministry.

Invossa is an injectable drug for osteoarthritis treatment 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 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 the second component were kidney cells capable of causing tumors, not cartilage cells as stated in the approval documents, the approval was finally revoked in July last year.

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

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