Illegal California medical warehouse investigated for housing possible pathogens, allegedly connected to Chinese company
- Officials in Reedley, California, found what appeared to be a ‘laboratory operation on site, storage and use of biological material’
- Several local news outlets have reported that warehouse owner Prestige Biotech is a Chinese company, but investigators have not confirmed that
Local and federal agencies have conducted a months-long investigation into an illegal medical warehouse in central California that allegedly housed potential pathogens and was run by a company with links to China.
City officials in Reedley, in Fresno county, said that during a regular inspection of the building in March, they found what appeared to be a “laboratory operation on site, storage and use of biological material, and experimentation on laboratory mice”, and contacted the county’s health department, the state’s Department of Public Health, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Documents filed with the Superior Court of California in Fresno by the county health department between March and July describe the site as “constituting a public nuisance”, seeking permissions to enter the site to “abate the source of communicable diseases, infectious agents, and other biological material”.
Fresno county’s health department backs the request, adding that during a second inspection in March, state health officials “documented embargoed medical devices, e.g. Covid tests and pregnancy tests, believed to be developed on site”.
Moreover, the county agency said, local health officials “observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples; serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material” on the site.
“Various laboratory equipment was also found to include a biological safety cabinet and centrifuge. Cold temperature storage units were also observed”, according to court filings, adding that “a room was found housing hundreds of laboratory mice”.
The federal Health and Human Services Department also reported that “at least 20 potentially infectious agents” including coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis and herpes were found on the site.
A joint city and county investigation determined that the building’s tenant was a Nevada-based biotechnology firm called Prestige Biotech – which is not licensed to do business in California. The warehouse had been operating there since October 2022.
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According to court documents, an individual named David He communicated with the investigators on behalf of Prestige Biotech. Emails in the filings show He disputing that infectious agents were stored on the property.
“We take this very seriously,”, He wrote the Fresno county health department in an email dated June 7. “Please give us the relevant findings and evidence as soon as possible. Because in the list of items and information we have, we have not got any infectious agents harmful to public health.”
A call to He by the South China Morning Post went unanswered.
But in a declaration filed with the court, Reedley Code Enforcement Officer Jesalyn Harper said she had exchanged emails with a woman named Xiuqin Yao, who identified herself as the president of Prestige Biotech.
Yao, Harper said, “indicated that the property was being used to store biomedical supplies related to developing diagnostic testing kits, as well as raising a large number of specially bred mice that were used for testing relating to immunology and oncology”.
Harper added that Yao had not provided any certification or license from any state or federal agency that permitted the activities conducted on the property.
“Nor did she provide a plan to care for the mice, or where the mice would be moved since the building was red-tagged following the city’s inspection.”
According to court documents, Yao said that Prestige Biotech moved assets belonging to a now-defunct California company named Universal Meditech after Universal had vacated another warehouse in the county. Investigators described Prestige Biotech as Universal’s successor.
Several local news outlets have reported that Prestige Biotech is a Chinese company, but investigators have not confirmed that.
The filings do not make clear if Yao is a Chinese citizen or not.
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In an interview with the California Globe, a local publication, Harper said Yao told her that she lived in China and could only communicate by email.
“And then she brought in a consultant, but we were still unable to establish whether Prestige Biolabs or Universal Meditech was the owner of the mice,” Harper said.
In other court filings, local health officials did say that while mice were found on the site, “there was no evidence on site that the mice were being injected or tested”, adding that “the mice were in distress”.
Investigators found “large numbers of dead mice in the cages, and many injuries and deformities to the mice were observed”, the health officials said.
“Due to the observed suffering of the animals and lack of the ability to provide adequate housing and care for the mice,” 773 were “humanely euthanised” by a veterinarian.
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Reached this week, the county health department’s assistant director, Joe Prado, said that biohazards and chemicals that could be a danger to the public were still being removed from the facility.
“There are over 800 chemicals on site and we are working with federal EPA to be able to dispose of those chemicals in accordance with federal and state standards,” he said in an interview.
Local Republicans are criticising the agencies for not telling the public about the alleged lab in a timely manner.
“You have a department of public health that becomes aware of this … it’s now been five months”, said Garry Bredefeld, a Fresno City council member, said this week.
“The public is not informed of this except from a reporter who reported this in a local media outlet. That’s unacceptable to me … and it should be unacceptable to our constituents.”
