Help to create the first Universal Snakebite Antidote

It had been a well-known fact for many decades that populations living in poverty suffer the medical burden of the world’s neglected tropical diseases, and snakebites envenoming being one of the most dramatic in the developing world. The vast majority of deaths provoked by viper-bites occur in Asia (with an estimates ranging from 15,400–57,600 per year) and sub-saharan Africa (3,500–32,100 per year) resulting from 1.8 million to 2.7 million cases of snakebite envenoming and 4.5 to 5.4 million bites from venomous and non-venomous snakes. Even though this numbers are the official records, some research have lighted up some preoccupant facts in where non-official records are almost 30 times higher than official tracks. Under this scope the rule of thumb trying to forecast an estimate, it is reliable to indicate that the non-official snakebite envenomation could raised to an alarming minimum of 10 million cases worldwide.

Snakebite envenoming has a multitude of consequences for the individuals affected and their families, as it pushes poor people further into poverty by virtue of high treatment costs, loss of income and enforced borrowing. As example, in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 and 2011 the direct cost of antivenom alone ranged from US$ 55 to US$ 640 for an effective treatment, with the average cost being US$ 124.7. In India, the country with more cases registered, the cost of initial treatment in 2010 was reported to be as high as US$ 5150, with an additional US$ 5890 in long-term costs.

The current approach for this problem is the neutralization of viper venom, which consists in the injection of sera based on monovalent or polyvalent antibodies extract from equines previously treated with specific or non-specific venoms. The purified antibodies are intended to neutralize the effects of the pathological enzymes by blocking the active sites and further activate an immune response against it. With this approach, acute reactions to antivenom can occur as rashes, flushing, severe anaphylaxis, pyrogenic reactions and serum delayed reaction (serum sickness) causing the greatest problem, and further treatment have to deal with them as much as managing envenoming, incrementing the economic cost as well. Another practical and very important limitation is that serum should be injected and are inactive by oral administration. These cause also the impossibility of having a ready to go and at hand solution to treat the problem immediately after the accident happened.

Serum based antidotes also have the problem of not being available for self-administration for people living in rural areas, due to economic costs and poor health infrastructures. If such approach can be achieved, a rapid oral or dermal patch delivery therapy and self-administered, could be of great benefit to control the symptoms as soon as possible after the attack occurred, without knowing how to administer injections and that way gaining precious time to get first aids from official medical centers. The suggested orally delivery system is not new, and had been under consideration for polyvalent antivenom, as an approach that can change the prognosis of snakebite as being easy-to-administer as first aid, with the advantage of present less irreversible damage from venom during transit time and less chance of adverse effect during transit due to controlled release properties of oral formulation

I am currently looking to found a organization with the principal aim to create the next generation of oral based delivery antidote to treat snakebite envenoming in the developing world. But I can affort by my own such effort. So please support this poor people living in poverty without any chance of survive!

Thank you very much!