Global Security Newswire

Two experts warned this month that the number of makers of botulinum neurotoxin could be growing to satisfy the rising desire for knockoff Botox, potentially increasing the likelihood that extremists could acquire the potential bioterror agent, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 25).

The toxin used in the wrinkle-lifting product and similar items is classified a Category A select agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That puts it alongside disease threats such as anthrax and plague and means it is considered a national security threat due to its ease of transmission, high mortality rate and potential to cause significant panic (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, May 26).

Illicit producers of the material could seek profit by providing it to terrorists or could themselves be militants, Raymond Zilinskas and Ken Coleman of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies said in the Scientific American article.

"This biowarfare potential puts the existence of illicit laboratories churning out the toxin and of shady distributors selling it worldwide through the Internet into a more disturbing light than most pharmaceutical fraud," they stated.

The researchers called for a collaborative effort by the science and law enforcement communities to consider the size of the dilemma before moving against the illicit producers (Zilinskas/Coleman, Scientific American, June 2010).