In your extensive experience, how common are unlicensed biotech R&D facilities being run in secret? And I see no reason being capable of biotech R&D would preclude it from being capable of more malicious purposes. If anything, I’d assume a significant amount of overlap between the two capabilities.
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So I did a bit of digging, and it’s unlikely this is a foreign agent.
It looks like Prestige Biotech was a creditor for and acquired the assets of Universal Meditech when the company collapsed. Prestige was storing what was left of Universal in this warehouse.
Universal Meditech was selling SARS test kits that got recalled in February of last year, which likely led to their bankruptcy. My guess is that Prestige didn’t have the available funding to properly dispose of the biohazards or care for the test subjects, ended up with a bunch of infectious mice that they couldn’t get rid of legally, and just decided to warehouse them in Fresno until they came up with a solution.
I don’t see how it’s cheaper to maintain an entire facility and staff just to take care of unwanted items, but I concede it’s a possibility, bureaucracy and inertia being what it is.
In your extensive experience, how common are unlicensed biotech R&D facilities being run in secret? And I see no reason being capable of biotech R&D would preclude it from being capable of more malicious purposes. If anything, I’d assume a significant amount of overlap between the two capabilities.
from @Arotrios
" So I did a bit of digging, and it’s unlikely this is a foreign agent.
It looks like Prestige Biotech was a creditor for and acquired the assets of Universal Meditech when the company collapsed. Prestige was storing what was left of Universal in this warehouse.
Universal Meditech was selling SARS test kits that got recalled in February of last year, which likely led to their bankruptcy. My guess is that Prestige didn’t have the available funding to properly dispose of the biohazards or care for the test subjects, ended up with a bunch of infectious mice that they couldn’t get rid of legally, and just decided to warehouse them in Fresno until they came up with a solution.
Edit: corrected per @fne8wah’s note "
I don’t see how it’s cheaper to maintain an entire facility and staff just to take care of unwanted items, but I concede it’s a possibility, bureaucracy and inertia being what it is.