On 24 January 2014, MEXT announced that the Shionogi Pharmaceutical Research Center (SPRC) in Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture had disposed of experimental equipment and waste liquid that had contained GM baculovirus without rendering it inactive as provided for by the Cartagena laws. The violations by the company had continued from July 2007 to October 2013. The baculovirus is used in the manufacture, development and research on GM pharmaceuticals. According to the company, the cause of the violation was that the manager and implementer of the experiments had insufficient awareness of the law.