August 25, 2023 - WASHINGTON — Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) is investigating whether an unlicensed lab in California owned by Prestige Biotech, a Chinese company, posed a threat to public health for allegedly conducting dangerous research related to COVID-19. In March 2023, city and state officials, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, executed a search warrant on the property, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inspected the lab for deadly viruses and infectious agents. As mounting intelligence and evidence supports that COVID-19 likely originated at a lab in Wuhan, China, conducting a thorough investigation into Prestige Biotech’s illegal bio-lab on U.S. soil is crucial to protecting America’s national security and preventing future outbreaks and pandemics.

“On March 16, 2023, various City and Bureau officials executed a search warrant and found ‘several hundred mice that…have been genetically modified to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.’  The mice were being kept in dangerous and unsafe conditions.  The City stated, ‘[t]he tenant has been unable to provide evidence of any state or federal licenses or certifications that would permit the breeding and experimentation being conducted on these mice,’” Chairman Wenstrup wrote in his letter to the FBI. 

“Between May 2 and 4, 2023, staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins inspected the lab and determined at least 20 potentially infectious agents were stored under inadequate conditions. This included Chlamydia trachomatis, E. coli, Human Immunodeficiency Virus 1 and 2 (HIV), Malaria, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, known as COVID-19).  According to documents, a purported representative of Prestige provided false statements and claimed there were no infectious agents stored at the laboratory,” Chairman Wenstrup wrote in his letter to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Read Chairman Wenstrup’s letters to FBI and HHS here:

• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Department of Health and Human Services
  Source: Committee On Oversight and Accountability