A Chinese biotech outsourcing company (CXO) with military ties recently purchased a large piece of land in Florida to build a monkey breeding and quarantine facility.
Florida newspaper Citrus County Chronicle reported on Sept. 22 that JOINN Laboratories, a Chinese CXO pharmaceutical company, purchased a 1,400-acre parcel of land in Levy County in July for $5.5 million to build the facility for primates, mostly experimental monkeys.
However, the site is designated as forestry or rural residential zoning, while Levy County only allows research laboratories in its industrial zone. Stacey Hectus, the county’s planning and zoning director, said that JOINN had been told the site was not suitable for its intended use before the purchase….