Kyung Hee University professor indicted for allegedly lobbying and manipulating “COVID-19 treatment drugs” = South Korea

A professor at Kyung Hee University is accused of manipulating documents in the process of developing a treatment for the COVID-19 virus and requesting high-ranking officials at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety through a broker to obtain approval for clinical trials.
The case was handed over to the court. On the 8th, South Korea's Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office Criminal Division 5 (Chief Prosecutor Kim John Hoon) announced charges including violation of the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Specified Economic Crimes (Breach of Trust) and obstruction of the execution of delegated official duties.
It was announced that Kang, a professor at Kyung Hee University, has been detained and indicted on suspicion of . According to the prosecution, Professor Kang led the development of pharmaceutical company G's drug to treat the COVID-19 virus.
He is the owner of the pharmaceutical company. In the second half of 2021, he commissioned Mr. Yang (45), a representative of a daily necessities company, to lobby for approval of Company G's clinical trials. Professor Kang received approximately 300 million won in cash as commission fee (
They paid about 33.6 million yen) and bought 600 million won (about 67.25 million yen) worth of convertible bonds from Mr. Yang's company, giving them a total of 900 million won (about 100 million yen) in money and goods. Professor Kang buys convertible bonds
It turned out that he was involved in the collection process. In October 2021, Company G received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for its Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial plans in South Korea.
Prosecutors say that Mr. Yang, who was commissioned by Professor Kang, acted as a mediator and handled personnel affairs in political and government circles.
An investigation has been conducted to determine whether the request was made to advanced officials at the Ministry of Food and Drug Administration. During this process, the prosecution suspected that Professor Kang had violated the Capital Market Act by trading stocks based on non-disclosed information on clinical trial approval, and that he had used false experimental data.
He obtained a patent from the Japan Patent Office and obtained approval for human subjects research from a medical institution. He is suspected of violating patent laws and obstructing business operations, and attempted to use the clinical trial approval to receive billions of won (hundreds of millions of yen) in government support.
further confirmed the suspicion of attempted fraud. Earlier, the prosecution secured records of conversations between Yang and an acquaintance. This recording has not been approved for clinical trials, and he and Mr.
Accordingly, it was reported that the document included content that was presumed to have been requested from the Minister of Food and Drug Safety at the time for approval. A public prosecutor's office official said, ``We are doing our best to maintain the prosecution so that the defendant is sentenced to a sentence commensurate with the crime.''
"We will do our best," and added, "We will promptly investigate the brokers, public officials, and others who were involved in requesting approval for the clinical trial."