Regarding the scope of its prohibitions, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) covers all activities that relate to the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of biological agents and toxins for hostile purposes.

With regard to the preventive measures that States Parties are required to adopt to regulate legitimate biological activities so as to ensure that biological agents and toxins are not being misused as biological weapons, a range of activities may have to be covered, depending on the biological activities that are ongoing in the State Party. These may include, as appropriate:

• selection of agents, material and knowledge that would trigger control measures and conduct of reviews thereof at specified times;
• inspection of objects where selected agents or materials are stored, or where work with them is carried out, or where personnel may have specific knowledge;
• controlling exports of selected agents or materials;
• controlling imports of selected agents or materials;
• preventive measures such as education, permission to work with or import/export selected agents (create an oversight system), duty to report dual-use research, screen personnel working with selected agents, having barriers in place to prevent unauthorised access to specific knowledge or selected agents/materials;
• intelligence and investigative measures; and
• repressive measures when persons or organisations are in violation of the regulations.