Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba speaks at a news conference with Fresno County officials in September 2023. Photo by Frank Lopez

Representatives of the City of Reedley and Fresno County are happy to hear about a Congressional subpoena regarding the discovery of an illegal biomedical research lab earlier this year.

Joined by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, County and Reedley officials held a news conference Wednesday to elaborate on the subpoena served to the City of Reedley by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

In July, MidValley Times first reported the discovery of an illegal biological medical lab ran by Prestige Biotech Inc. and Universal Meditech Inc.

Paul Nerland, Fresno County chief administrative officer, said the subpoena was issued in coordination with a bipartisan effort from the House, Energy and Commerce Committee, with the congressional attorneys interviewing county and city officials.

“This action by the committee is a good thing,” Nerland said. “We are pleased with congressional scrutiny and an investigation of how an unlicensed lab like this can exist absent federal or state oversight.”

Nerland said this congressional review will bring actual oversight of privately funded research labs into sharper focus. He said that there is no current oversight at a local, state or national level of these types of labs.

The Board of Supervisors intends to propose an ordinance that will allow the public health department to conduct annual inspections of privately funded labs.

Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba said there needs to be federal oversight to prevent illegal labs not only in the Reedley area, but across the nation.

“Yes, in fact, I have been served with a congressional subpoena,” Zieba said. “Very happily served because what that means is that bipartisan congress is taking us seriously.”

By issuing the subpoena, Congress is able to receive city documents that otherwise would not have been accessible during an investigation, she said.

Zieba said the Environmental Protection Agency was at the laboratory site last week, completing the abatement of lab chemicals. EPA is picking up the estimated tab of $130,000 to $150,000, which would be a steep cost for a city the size of Reedley.

Reedley’s City Council placed a temporary moratorium on any new laboratories that would be categorized at a biosafety level (BSL) of 2,3 or 4.

BSL-1 labs are used to study infectious agents or toxins not normally known to cause disease in healthy adults, with the extreme end of BSL-4 labs that study airborne infections and life-threatening disease with no cure or therapy available.

David Luchini, Fresno County director of Public Health, said there are some key issues that the federal government needs to look into, such as how private labs, especially research and development labs, are regulated.

He said there also needs to be improvements to tracking and inventory when infectious diseases are imported to the United States.

With certain Centers for Disease Control and Prevention permits, infectious diseases and viruses can be imported to the U.S. and then sold.

Public Health Department Assistant Director Joe Prado said the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment Act provides the entire nation the infrastructure to oversee labs.

There is specific language in the act that excludes research labs, which should be deleted, he said.

If the supervisors’ proposed ordinance is passed, the county’s public health department would be allowed oversight of infectious agents found at the Reedley lab, which they currently do not have.

Federal agencies also need to assess the permitting process of labs and determine whether permits should be transferable. Prado said there could be issues when a permit is transferable.

“We and all of our partners, including federal and state partners, agree that there is a gap in our laboratory national security. We need to address that, and we want to be at the table as a solution,” Prado said.