Prosecutors Reinvestigate Daewoong Pharmaceutical Over Alleged Botox Technology Leak

The prosecution is reopening an investigation into Daewoong Pharmaceutical on suspicion of stealing the 'botulinum strain' technology, the raw material for Botox injections, from a competitor.

Photo of Daewoong Pharmaceutical in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 28th, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office issued an order on the 22nd to reopen the investigation into the alleged leak of Botox raw material technology by Daewoong Pharmaceutical. The order to reopen an investigation is a procedure in which a higher-level prosecution office reviews appeals or re-appeals and instructs a reinvestigation if it determines that the initial investigation was insufficient. The reinvestigation has been assigned to the Information Technology Crime Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor Lee Seong-beom) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

The Criminal Division 12 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office last February dismissed charges against Daewoong Pharmaceutical and its executives and employees, who were accused of violating the Act on the Prevention and Protection of Industrial Technology Leakage, and ruled that there was no prosecutorial authority over some technology leaks and breach of trust charges due to the statute of limitations.

Previously, the pharmaceutical company Medytox filed a complaint against Daewoong Pharmaceutical and others, alleging that a former researcher who worked at Medytox stole the botulinum strain technology by signing a consulting contract with Daewoong Pharmaceutical, and that Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced the technology as if they had developed it themselves.

The prosecution acknowledged that the two companies' products are based on similar core technologies but found no evidence to prove that Medytox's proprietary strains or manufacturing process information were leaked to Daewoong Pharmaceutical, resulting in a dismissal of charges.

In response, Medytox filed an appeal in March last year, and after reviewing the appeal for about one year and three months, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office ordered the case to be reinvestigated.

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