Prosecution Appeals Against Reduced Sentence in 2nd Trial of Former Vice Chairman of Anguk Yakpum for 'Illegal Clinical Trials by Employees'

The prosecution has filed an appeal against former Anguk Yakpum Vice Chairman Eo Jin, who was sentenced to 8 months in prison in the second trial for conducting unauthorized clinical trials on employees.

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On the 7th, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office submitted a notice of appeal against former Vice Chairman Eo, who was sentenced to 8 months in prison for violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act but was acquitted on charges including obstruction of official duties by deception in the appellate court.

The prosecution stated, "While the court found former Vice Chairman Eo guilty of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act by conducting unauthorized clinical trials on research institute employees, it partially acquitted him on the charge of obtaining clinical trial approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety through deception by manipulating data, citing difficulty in recognizing collusion with the head of the laboratory. However, considering the testimonies of employees who admitted to collusion with former Vice Chairman Eo and the collected evidence, we believe the collusion can be sufficiently acknowledged. Therefore, we judged it necessary to correct the appellate court's conclusion," explaining the reason for the appeal.

Former Vice Chairman Eo was indicted on charges of administering a developing antihypertensive drug to 16 employees of Anguk Yakpum's central research institute in January 2016 without approval from the head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and administering a developing antithrombotic agent to 12 central research institute employees in June of the following year to conduct clinical trials.

He is also accused of manipulating data and submitting it to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to obtain approval after failing to obtain necessary non-clinical trial results to verify safety and efficacy during the development process of the antithrombotic agent in May 2017.

The second trial court overturned the first trial, considering that the employees voluntarily participated after hearing explanations about the clinical trials and participation fees, that there were no side effects from the clinical experiments, and that the risks were not significant, and sentenced him to 8 months in prison, which is a lighter sentence than the first trial.

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