Soon after the opening of its pharmaceutical subsidiary, Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, Umbrella began developing biological weaponry for militaries across the world as part of a worldwide conspiracy to accumulate deadly viruses directly prohibited by the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

Umbrella Pharmaceuticals was able to cover this by researching vaccines for the same viruses. Umbrella's other industries, such as the tourism firm, the Paraguas Line Company, earned revenue from transporting passengers across the Atlantic as a front for the transporting viral weapon samples from West Africa, while Umbrella Industries was responsible for the development of anti-B.O.W. weaponry.

Umbrella's true goal was not, in fact, a capitalistic urge for monopolization of a lucrative industry, but eugenics. This fact was only known to corporate executives, who shared the belief that their principle objective was the funding of the Wesker Project, which was to birth a new race of virally-enhanced and well-educated superhumans who would advance human civilization for generations to come.