During the Cold War, the Soviet Union military industrial complex concentrated on becoming a biological superpower by transforming viruses and bacteria to weapons of war. Industrial scale biological weapons facilities were built to win the germ war arms race. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly independent sovereign countries were faced with the challenge of dealing with deadly pathogens at sites left unprotected and vulnerable to theft.
Toeroek Associates, Inc. has supported the CTR mission since 2005 and multiple contract changes with primary focus on Biosurveillance, Biosafety and Biosecurity through the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP). The program operates within an interagency framework to prevent the proliferation of expertise, materials, equipment, and technologies that could contribute to the development of biological threats.
Over the years, the BTRP has made significant contributions to international and homeland security. Originally providing assistance to partner nations across the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and now partner nations around the world. Today, ongoing work also emphasizes cooperation and collaborative research with institutes and scientists to strengthen the detection and diagnosis of highly infectious disease outbreaks and related biothreats. The program has grown substantially from its initial focus on FSU republics to now include countries in Asia and Africa. Toeroek provides technical science, life cycle project and acquisition management support to international programs. Additionally, we provide Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) expertise on technical international projects and foreign malign influence.
- Consolidate and secure dangerous pathogen collections into central reference labs or repositories.
- Improve the safety and security of biological facilities.
- Enhance partner nations’ capabilities to detect, diagnose, and report bio-terror attacks and potential pandemics.
- Engage scientists with biological weapon-related expertise in research that supports force protection, medical countermeasures, diagnostics, and modeling.
In recent years, our staff have supported BTRP bilateral and regional engagements that span the following countries: Armenia (2018, 2019), Austria (2018), Australia (2024), Cambodia (2019, 2020), France (2019), Georgia (2019), Germany (2018), Indonesia (2022), Italy (2019), Liberia (2022), Malaysia (2022, 2024), Philippines (2018, 2019), Poland (2019), Singapore (2024), South Africa (2018, 2019), Thailand (2019, 2023, 2024), Tunisia (2023), Uganda (2019), and Ukraine (2019).
