April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical on Mar. 9 laid out a new set of internal compliance regulations aimed at preventing its employees from misusing undisclosed company-related information to reap illegal profits.

The move comes three months after four Hanmi employees were indicted with detention for spreading undisclosed information regarding a broken licensing deal between Hanmi and Boehringer Ingelheim and reaping unlawful gains.

Seoul prosecutors had found that 45 offenders, including the Hanmi employees, had engaged in strategic stock transactions to reap illegal profits worth 3.3 billion won ($2.83 million) based on an early notice of the deal’s collapse.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical said it has drawn up a new policy that bans its employees from selling or buying Hanmi-related stocks from when they begin working on a particular project to when the details of the project are officially publicized.

All Hanmi employees must also report their ownership of stocks held in Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Hanmi Science and Hanmi-owned medication management automation company JVM, every four months for review, the company said.

In addition, Hanmi has banned employees from disclosing classified company-related information to outsiders and from discussing information related to the company’s business for one year even after they stop working at Hanmi.

“We plan to execute these new policies to promote this year’s goal of ‘trustworthy management.’ We’ll continue working to regain investors’ trust and build up a strong compliance system that adheres to global standards,” Hanmi Pharmaceutical said in a statement.

By Sohn Ji-young/The Korea Herald (jys@heraldcorp.com)