Genetech Laboratories also styled as GeneTech Laboratories, was a medical research company that produced pharmaceutical products. It was a subsidiary of Chiewab Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals Company, along with the Corellian Chemical Corporation, Chiewab Nutrition, Degan Explorations, and The Vernan Group.
At some point after the formation of the Galactic Empire, Genetech Laboratories financed an exploration to the Gorsh system, a remote star system in Wild Space that had only been discovered by roughly a century prior to the Galactic Civil War. The Empire awarded exclusive proprietary rights to anything discovered in the system to Genetech Laboratories, and the company established a research station in orbit of the third planet, Gorsh, which was the only habitable world in the system. Small, spartan, lightly armed and supplied only with the bare minimum of necessities, the orbital research lab was staffed by thirty scientists along with ten corporate security guards. Only Genetech representatives and authorized Imperial personnel were allowed to enter the system. The penalty for trespass in the system stood at a fine of up to five million credits, or up to years in an Imperial prison camp.
A swampy, tropical world, Gorsh surprised the Genetech Laboratories scientists with the abundance of chemical compounds produced by the planet's plant and animal life. The compounds were refined and developed to create useful drugs, medicines and consumer goods that Genetech Laboratories turned a profit on. Research teams from the station—usually numbering a dozen scientists and a few guards—ventured to the surface of Gorsh on a regular basis. Equipped with survival gear, medicines, breath masks, weapons, , chemical analyzers, pocket computers, biochem synthesizers, and field gear, the teams spent up to two weeks at a time on the planet gathering data and samples. Remote probes, controlled from the station, we also employed to scour Gorsh.
During their explorations, the Genetech Laboratories scientists discovered the Orgons, a sentient species of mobile plants. The company quickly placed a priority on the capture and dissection of one of the Orgons in an effort to learn more about them and discover whether or not the creatures yield anything that could help Genetech Laboratories scientific research. Although unaware of the Orgons level of intelligence, Genetech Laboratories kept the discovery quiet for fear of the Empire or a rival corporation learning of the Orgons existence, which would lead to an investigation into the company's activities on the planet.
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