LIFESAVING ANTIDOTES
Around the world, many populations live in close proximity to venomous snake species. The looming threat of snakebite becomes reality for an estimated 5.4 million people annually. Up to half of those bites are envenomings, resulting in a toll of more than 500,000 people killed or maimed by snakes each year.
Ophirex, a public benefit corporation focused on global health, is working to improve outcomes for victims of snakebite by developing an affordable, accessible, oral treatment for immediate use anywhere a bite occurs.
Most snakebite fatalities occur before victims can reach medical care.
The gap between suffering a venomous snakebite and obtaining appropriate treatment can be long, agonizing, and, ultimately, deadly. Most bites occur in rural areas, far from hospitals that can administer necessary antivenoms. Time to treatment can determine outcomes.
As the proteins in different snake venoms affect bite victims’ circulatory and nervous systems, they can destroy blood vessels and cause paralysis, sometimes stopping respiration. The area bitten can develop necrosis, eventually requiring grafts or amputation.
Ophirex is developing a “time of bite” oral treatment that blocks the most lethal component of venom — present in 95% of the world’s venomous snakes — and can be administered immediately, anywhere, to effectively stop the venom’s devastating assault.
Snakebite disproportionately affects the world’s most vulnerable populations, who suffer massive health and socio-economic impacts.
Snakebites often occur when people accidentally disturb snakes hiding in the environment, along paths, or amidst fields.
The highest morbidity and mortality due to snakebite occurs in rural areas among children, adolescents, and young adults — the farmers, herders, fishers, and others working to support their families. In many countries, including India, a loss of earning power can be ruinous, especially as the cost of antivenom treatment can exceed twice the average annual income.
For people with already limited access to healthcare and education, the setbacks can be felt for generations.
