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History
For nearly a decade the Office of Proliferation Threat Reduction of the U.S. Department of State has participated in collaborative research programs with the former Soviet Union. Through our congressional appropriation, this office was instrumental in establishing the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) in Moscow, and the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), which focus on the peaceful redirection of former weapons scientists in all technology areas.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the anthrax mailings shortly thereafter, the United States Congress expanded the scope of the Office of Proliferation Threat Reduction to create a new program, The BioIndustry Initiative (BII). In an effort to reduce terrorist access to biological weapons, facilities and expertise, and more broadly, to join Russia to combat bioterrorism, BII was created to carry out two specific objectives:
- Reconfiguration of former Biological Weapons Production Facilities
The Initiative seeks to engage and strategically transform former Soviet biological production facilities, their technology and expertise for sustainable, commercial and peaceful applications.
- Accelerate Drug and Vaccine Production
BII fosters partnerships between U.S. and Russian scientists for research and development to accelerate drug and vaccine production for highly infectious diseases that affect both the former Soviet Union and the world.
BII now receives annual funding from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Proliferation Threat Reduction, which supports both the Science Centers and the Bio/Chem-Redirect nonproliferation programs working in Eurasia.
Authorization
The BioIndustry Initiative was authorized in the Defense and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for FY 2002 (Public Law 107-117). Congressional authorization called for the "redirection of former Soviet biological production facilities to vaccine production, and efforts to engage former Soviet biological weapons scientists in collaborative research with U.S. corporations to develop new vaccine and drug therapies for highly infectious diseases."
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