[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] According to legal circles on the 28th, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office ordered a reinvestigation into Daewoong Pharmaceutical's alleged leak of Botox raw material technology on the 22nd. The re-investigation order is a procedure in which a higher prosecutor's office receives an appeal or re-appeal and orders to investigate again when it determines that there was an insufficient part in the investigation.
Earlier in January 2017, Medytox filed a criminal complaint against employees of Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Daewoong Pharmaceutical for violating the Industrial Technology Leakage Prevention Act and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act for stealing the BTX strain. Since then, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office has cleared the case of charges and no right to indict it in February last year, which did not lead to indictment. At that time, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office reportedly indicted Medytox on the grounds that there was no evidence to admit that information on its strains or manufacturing processes had been leaked to Daewoong Pharmaceutical. In response, Medytox filed an appeal with the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office in March last year, saying the disposition was unfair.
BTX is a deadly poison extracted from botulinum bacteria. The poison was also studied as a biochemical weapon during World War II because it was fatal enough to kill a million people with just one gram. However, injecting a very small amount of BTX under the skin can result in a fine paralysis of the muscles, so it is used for cosmetic or medical purposes. BTX formulation is commonly known as the original product name 'Botox'. Allergan, the first U.S. pharmaceutical company to commercialize the ingredient, has put on a brand name Botox, which has become widely used as its brand name has been solidified.
Medytox has been claiming that Daewoong Pharmaceutical has stolen its strains since 2016. Medytox claims that Daewoong Pharmaceutical illegally took out the strain and stole the manufacturing process when it recruited a retiree from Medytox. Daewoong Pharmaceutical, on the other hand, has refuted that the origin of the strain is certain, with the BTX strain collected from the riverside of Yongin City and the record remaining.
In addition to criminal charges, the two sides are sharply confronting each other through civil litigation. Medytox filed a lawsuit against Daewoong Pharmaceutical in October 2017, including a 50 billion won ban on infringement of trade secrets. The first trial of the civil suit ended in Medytox's complete victory in March when the Seoul Central District Court ordered Daewoong Pharmaceutical to pay 40 billion won in compensation to Medytox, deliver strains and dispose of its products. Since then, the second trial has been under way as Daewoong Pharmaceutical has appealed.
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
