Gov’t to fully investigate its COVID-19 research support

On the state funding it had provided for the research of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines

Previous administration supported 10 companies... only 2 of which succeeded in commercialization

People Power Party raises suspicions of preferential treatment provided to GC Pharma

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it will conduct a full investigation on all of the projects it had supported for the clinical trial research of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines by the first quarter of next year.

 

Since 2020, a total of 10 companies were selected for the government's COVID-19 treatment and vaccine clinical support project.

 

Although these companies received state support for clinical research, only two succeeded in commercialization.

 

Due to this lack of results, the question of whether the state’s support was excessive has been rising.

 

With the People Power Party determining the project as a project badly managed example of the previous administration, what the results of the MOHW investigation will be is receiving keen attention.

 

At the NA Audit that had been held on the 20th, the MOHW agreed to Rep.

 

Gi-Yoon Kang’s criticism that "the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments should continue, but sanctions are needed for companies that were found to have caused market disruption or embezzled business expenses.,” and promised it will investigate related projects by the 1st quarter of next year.

 

The MOHW said, “We plan to continue supporting the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments through the K-Bio Vaccine Fund worth a total of KRW 500 billion in 2023, but agree with the representative that measures are needed for companies that have done wrong through measures such as market disruptions or embezzlement." The ministry added, "We will conduct an investigation by the 1st quarter of next year to see if there were any problems in the process of research and evaluations conducted on companies that participated in the COVID-19 treatment and vaccine clinical support project, and report the results to Rep.

 

Kang’s office.” 10 companies were selected for the COVID-19 treatment and vaccine clinical support project that had been carried out 3 times since 2020.

 

The selected companies were Celltrion, GC Pharma, Daewoong Pharmaceutical, Genexine, SK Bioscience, GeneOne Life Science, Cellid, Eu Biologics, HK Inno.N, and Quratis.

 

This was a megaproject whose budget reached KRW 232.8 billion from 2020 to 2021.

 

However, among the 10 companies, only Celltrion and SK Bioscience succeeded in commercialization.

 

Celltrion succeeded in developing an antibody treatment for COVID-19 and SK Bioscience succeeded in developing a vaccine for COVID-19.

 

The other companies have discontinued development or are having difficulty commercializing their products.

 

The members of the People Power Party had focused on this issue at the NA Audit.

 

In particular, they raised their voice on whether GC Pharma received preferential treatment in receiving state support for its discontinued plasma therapy candidate.

 

Kang had previously pointed out that “Even though the clinical trial for GC Pharma’s COVID-19 plasma therapy had been discontinued abroad after the US National Institutes of Health determinized the drug lacked efficacy, the company still applied for conditional marketing authorization for the candidate to the MFDS in Korea.

 

In the process, GC Pharma’s stock price rose from KRW 90,000 to KRW 300,000.” Rep.

 

Jong-Hean Baek of the People Power Party also said, “GC Pharma stopped developing treatments even after receiving support for KRW 5.8 billion, which accounts for 60% of the total of KRW 9.7 billion spend spent on researching its COVID-19 plasma therapy.

 

Wasn’t this just the company’s attempt to defraud the government or raise their stock price?" However, GC Pharma is known to have returned KRW 1.97 billion of the supported fund to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI).

 

The recent police investigation into Il-Yang Pharmaceutical for raising its stock price by inflating its COVID-19 treatment research results is adding to the suspicions.

 

The MOHW also stressed, "If problems such as market disruption or embezzlement of business expenses of companies that received government support are revealed in the course of investigations conducted by the police or other investigative agencies in the future, we will conduct a further investigation."