Канат Алибеков: от разработчика биологического оружия к защитнику мира.

Kazakh American physician, microbiologist, and biological warfare (BW) expert

Kanatzhan "Kanat" Baizakovich Alibekov (born 1950), known as Kenneth "Ken" Alibek since 1992, is a Kazakh American microbiologist, bioweaponeer, and biological warfare administrative management expert. He was the first deputy director of Biopreparat. During his career in Soviet bioweaponry development in the late 1970s and 1980s, Alibekov managed projects that included weaponizing glanders and Marburg hemorrhagic fever, and created Russia's first tularemia bomb. His most prominent accomplishment was the creation of a new "battle strain" of anthrax, known as "Strain 836", later described by the Los Angeles Times as "the most virulent and vicious strain of anthrax known to man". In 1994, Alibek received a congressional award, a bronze Barkley medal awarded in recognition of distinguished public service and his contribution to world peace. In 2002, Alibek told United Press International that there is concern that monkeypox could be engineered into a biological weapon. Ohio based Locus Fermentation Solutions hired Alibek in 2015 as executive vice president for research and development of biologically active molecules for different applications.

Alibek was born Kanat Alibekov in Kauchuk, in the Kazakh SSR of the Soviet Union (present day Kazakhstan), to a Kazakh family. He grew up in Almaty, the republic's former capital. He is a certified oncologist, a doctor of science, doctor of philosophy and a doctor of medicine.

Alibek's academic performance while studying military medicine at the Tomsk Medical Institute and his family's noted patriotism led to his selection to work for Biopreparat, the secret biological weapons program overseen by the Soviet Union's Council of Ministers. His first assignment in 1975 was to the Eastern European Branch of the Institute of Applied Biochemistry (IAB) near Omutninsk, a combined pesticide production facility and reserve biological weapons production plant intended for activation in a time of war. At Omutninsk, Alibek mastered the art and science of formulating and evaluating nutrient media and cultivation conditions for the optimization of microbial growth. While there, he expanded his medical school laboratory skills into the complex skill set required for industrial level production of microorganisms and their toxins. After a year at Omutninsk, Alibek was transferred to the Siberian Branch of the IAB near Berdsk (another name of the branch was the Berdsk scientific and production base). With the assistance of a colleague, he designed and constructed a microbiology research and development laboratory that worked on techniques to optimize the production of biological formulations. After several promotions, Alibek was transferred back to Omutninsk, where he rose to the position of deputy director. He was soon transferred to the Kazakhstan Scientific and Production Base in Stepnogorsk (another reserve BW facility) to become the new director of that facility. Officially, he was deputy director of the Progress Scientific and Production Association, a manufacturer of fertilizer and pesticide. At Stepnogorsk, Alibek created an efficient industrial scale assembly line for biological formulations. In a time of war, the assembly line could be used to produce weaponized anthrax. Continued successes in science and biotechnology led to more promotions, which resulted in a transfer to Moscow.

In Moscow, Alibek began his service as deputy chief of the biosafety directorate at Biopreparat. He was promoted in 1988 to first deputy director of Biopreparat, where he not only oversaw the biological weapons facilities but also the significant number of pharmaceutical facilities that produced antibiotics, vaccines, sera, and interferon for the public. In response to a Spring 1990 announcement that the Ministry of Medical and Microbiological Industry was to be reorganized, Alibek drafted and forwarded a memo to then General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev proposing the cessation of Biopreparat's biological weapons work. Gorbachev approved the proposal, but an additional paragraph was secretly inserted into Alibek's draft, resulting in a presidential decree that ordered the end of Biopreparat's biological weapons work but also required them to remain prepared for future bioweapons production. Alibek used his position at Biopreparat and the authority granted to him by the first part of the decree to begin the destruction of the biological weapons to dismantle biological weapons production and testing capabilities at a number of research and development facilities, including Stepnogorsk, Kol'tsovo, Obolensk, and others. He also negotiated a concurrent appointment to a Biopreparat facility called Biomash. Biomash designed and produced technical equipment for microbial cultivation and testing. He planned to increase the proportion of its products sent to hospitals and civilian medical laboratories beyond the 40% allocated at the time. Information about the Soviet biological weapons program had already been provided in 1989 by the defected scientist Vladimir Pasechnik. Alibekov has testified before the U. S. Congress several times and has provided guidance to U. S. intelligence, policy, national security, and medical communities. He was the impetus behind the creation of a biodefense graduate program at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, serving as Distinguished Professor of Medical Microbiology and the program's Director of Education. He also developed the plans for the university's biosafety level three (BSL 3) research facility and secured $40 million of grants from the federal and state governments for its construction. Reporting the prospect of Iraq gaining the ability to get hold of smallpox or anthrax, Alibek said, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction." However, no biological weapons were later found in Iraq.

Alibek was president, chief scientific officer, and chief executive officer at AFG Biosolutions, Inc in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where he and his scientific team continued their development of advanced solutions for antimicrobial immunity. Motivated by the lack of affordable anti cancer therapies available in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, AFG was using Alibek's biotechnology experience to plan, build, and manage a new pharmaceutical production facility designed specifically to address this problem. Alibek created a new pharmaceutical production company, MaxWell Biocorporation (MWB), in 2006 and served as its chief executive officer and president. Based in Washington, D. C., with several subsidiaries and affiliates in the U. S. and Ukraine, MWB's main stated goal is create a new, large scale, high technology, ultra modern pharmaceutical fill and finish facility in Ukraine. Off patent generic pharmaceuticals produced at this site are intended to target severe oncological, cardiological, immunological, and chronic infectious diseases. Construction of the Boryspil facility began in April 2007 and was completed in March 2008; initial production was scheduled to begin in 2008. The stated intention was that high quality pharmaceuticals would be produced and become an affordable source of therapy for millions of underprivileged who currently have no therapeutic options. Abilek stepped down as President of MWB in the summer of 2008 shortly after the facility opened. Alibek's main research focus was developing novel forms of therapy for late stage oncological diseases and other chronic degenerative pathologies and disorders. He focuses on the role of chronic viral and bacterial infections in causing age related diseases and premature aging. Additionally, he develops and implements novel systemic immunotherapy methods for late stage cancer patients.

In 2010, Alibek was invited to begin working in Kazakhstan as a head of the Department of Chemistry and Biology at the School of Science and Technology of Nazarbayev University in Astana, where he was engaged in the development of anti cancer drugs and life prolonging drugs, and was chairman of the board of the Republican Scientific Center for Emergency Medical Care and headed the National Scientific Center for Oncology and Transplantation. During his stay, he published a number of articles in research journals and taught various courses in various fields of biology and medicine. He focused on a possible role of chronic infections, metabolic disorders, and immunosuppression on cancer development. In 2011, he was awarded a prize from the Deputy Prime Minister for his contribution to the development of the educational system in Kazakhstan. In 2014, he was awarded a medal by the Minister of Education and Science of Kazakhstan for his contribution to research in Kazakhstan. He continues his work as an administrative manager of a research and medicine and education professor. However, after seven years, no significant scientific results from Alibek's work developed. During these seven years, Alibek received more than 1 billion Tenge from the budget for "New Systemic Therapy for Cancer Tumors" project he tried to implement. The promising Swedish technique has remained a common concept, a panacea for cancer treatment has not appeared. Three submitted Alibekov patent applications for registration were rejected by the National Institute of Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan since there was no novelty. In 2016, Alibek was chosen as one of the nominees in the "Science" category of the national project El Tulgasy, which was designed to select the most significant citizens of Kazakhstan who are associated with national achievements. More than 350,000 people voted in this project, and Alibek was voted 10th place in his category.

Alibek has experience in vaccine development for pandemics. In 2006, his article on new principles for developing these vaccines was published in Future Medicine. In January 2020, Alibek issued a warning about COVID 19 and its potential as a global problem. His research on safe methods of protection against the virus ahead of a vaccine was later published in the journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO). He also wrote two chapters on methods to protect against the COVID 19 pandemic in the book Defending Against Biothreats: What We Can Learn from the Coronavirus Pandemic to Enhance U. S. Defenses Against Pandemics and Biological Weapons. In 2021, Alibek offered a free seminar on the antiviral biodefence in the world of epidemic uncertainties.

Starting in 2007, Alibek began researching autism based on his background as a board certified oncologist and his own personal connection to the disorder through his daughter, Mary. He supports the idea that the disorder is the result of prenatal viral and bacterial infections. Multiple studies have been conducted with patients that have autism spectrum disorder, including a 2018 2019 study with 57 patients, a 2021 2023 study with 142 patients and a 2023 study with 32 patients. In addition, more than 1,000 children have been treated using the protocol. His patients are located predominantly in nations in the former Soviet Union and Ukraine, and he consults mainly using free telemedicine services. During these studies, specific inflammation markers along with biochemical and neuropsychiatric parameters were identified as an objective measure of improvement in and a reduction of symptoms. Alibek has published 6 studies in peer reviewed journals about the causes and treatment of Autism, and has one issued U. S. patent and three U. S. patent filings on his novel approach to treatment.

In a September 2003 news release, Alibek and another professor suggested, based on their laboratory research, that the smallpox vaccination might increase a person's resistance to HIV. The work was rejected after peer review by the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet and is no longer being pursued. According to smallpox expert and former White House science advisor Donald Henderson, "This is a theory that does not hold up at all, and it does not make any sense from a biologic point of view This idea was straight off the wall. I would put no credence in it at all." In 2010, an article coauthored by Alibek appeared in Biomed Central Immunology, a scientific journal, that outlined the results of their research showing that prior immunization with the vaccine Dryvax may confer resistance to HIV replication. Alibek also has promoted "Dr. Ken Alibek's Immune System Support Formula," a dietary supplement sold over the Internet. It contains vitamins, minerals, and a proprietary bacterial mix that will purportedly "bolster the immune system".

Alibek has a wife and five children (two sons and three daughters); one of his daughters is autistic.