Old Plagues, New Threats: The Biotech Revolution and its Impact on US National Security

The benefits of biotechnology have brought unprecedented advances in global development. In many ways, the world is a better place to live than it has ever been: life expectancy has doubled in the past 100 years; the technology-driven revolution has created astonishing new capabilities to diagnose and treat illnesses; and new technologies are being applied to bolster food production across the developing world.

A formidable challenge of globalization, is governments' inability to effectively monitor and regulate these emerging technologies - and the increasing commitment and wherewithal of non-state actors to use these advances for hostile purposes.

This report uses a case study industry's growing interest in dangerous pathogens and toxins as therapeutic pharmaceuticals. It illustrates the full life-cycle of threats and opportunities from research to distribution to injection into patient of products derived from select agents.