Global Snakebite Envenomation and Antivenin Report

"Exact numbers can be hard to determine, but globally it’s estimated that as many as 2.7 million people are envenomed by snakes every year. Of these, up to 400,000 are permanently disabled, and estimates suggest that 81,000 to 138,000 die. Poorer nations suffer the greatest proportion of snake bites."

"The world produces less antivenom than it needs, and production quality varies. The cost to manufacture the remedy is more than most patients can afford, and anti-venom isn’t exactly a profitable business, which deters its production. And those bitten often live in remote areas where they can't access antivenom quickly."

"Development is underway for a universal snake antivenom"
Quotes Source: "Today in Science - Scientific American". 9/27/2023

Full Report:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ed-from-ebola/

I would assume a synthetic antivenin would cost more than the real thing to manufacture. And I don't understand how you could have a "universal" antivenin? So many enzymes in each of the different types of venom, that would be a tough endeavor.

It would seem a tall order and complex undertaking to develop a synthetic universal antivenin. Even if one considered broad groupings such as "universal elapid" or "universal crotalid" and so forth. There are reports of successful bite treatment when species specific antivenin is unavailable but "closely related" species antivenin is available and used. I recall this among elapid envenomations.
It has been known for some years that CroFab is less effective on bites from C. helleri and C. oreganus. I don't know if these species' venom is used in production - suspect not. Here is a recent report (December 2022) indicating CroFab was not effective in treating a patient with C. helleri envenomation. Readers may also wish to look at the citations at the end of the article. Multiple reports of "how well CroFab worked on different species".
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...96064422004401

We had a thread on the Ophirex universal treatment study last year. Fascinating stuff.

https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/for...d.php?t=790339

Several years ago I was engaged to write a business plan for a VC start-up coral snake antivenin production facility. It quickly became apparent that such is enormously expensive for extremely few incidences and the notion was terminated. Plus, coral snake envenomation can be treated without antivenin.

Here is the Ophirex-BRAVO updated clinical trial link. Note that the Phase 2 trial reports completion in June 2023 with 96 of desired 110 participants. Will be interesting to read their results when available.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04996264

Here is the home page for Ophirex:
https://www.ophirex.com/


Here is the January 2023 Series B funding round of $37 million:
https://www.ophirex.com/20230105-oph...es-b-financing