Professor Kang, founder of Genencell, is suspected of asking Kim Seung-won, a nominee for Minister of Justice, to accelerate clinical trial approval for a COVID-19 treatment. Data submitted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Lee Man-hee of the People Power Party showed that Professor Kang’s teams and related companies received 1.4541 billion Korean won through seven ministry R&D projects between May 2007 and September 2023. M-Biome Therapeutics received 577 million Korean won through four startup-support projects, while KOTEC (Korea Technology Finance Corporation) provided 555 million Korean won in technology guarantees and invested 500 million Korean won for a 0.67% stake in Genencell. Excluding the guarantees, total ministry and KOTEC support and investment amounted to 2.5311 billion Korean won. The ministry said all projects were selected through public competition, while KOTEC said its decisions followed comprehensive reviews. Lee called for a thorough investigation into the entire support and selection process.