Snakebite antidote shortage in the future warn experts. (Photo : REUTERS/ROBERT PRATTA)
Experts have warned that tens of thousands of lives are being put at risk in Sub -Saharan Africa owing to the fact that the world will run out of effective snakebite anti-venom treatments.
Medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) toldBBC new stocks of Fav-Afrique anti-venom which is capable of neutralizing bites from 10 popular Sub-Saharan snakes in Africa is on the decline and desperately required.
The laboratories of Sanofi Pasteur who are the largest producer of vaccines is behind the Fav-Afrique anti-venom which is used by medical practitioners to treat snakebites for some of the world's most dangerous snakes.
For the vaccine manufacturer with Brazilian, Indian and Mexican companies entering the African market with cheaper drugs, treating those with snakebites in the Sub Saharan region is no longer profitable.
Having stopped production last year stocks of Fav-Afrique anti-venom are available till June 2016 thereafter the technology behind producing anti-venom will be redirected to produce vaccines for rabies.
According to MSF there is no replacement for Fav-Afrique, while alternatives exist none of them are safe and can be guaranteed.
In an interview with The Independent, Sanofi Pasteur vice-president and spokesman, Alain Bernal, said when the anti-serum was released to the market sales dropped by six fold.
The cost price in the market he said was completely different to their costing which prompted the company to rethink its decision.
He told the publication the same technology can be applied to produce rabies vaccines for which the demand is better and there are few producers. Adding that while they are a private company, the research involved in production is self -financed and without funds they cannot conduct research to better improve their vaccines.
According to MSF snakebites have become the most neglected public health emergencies with five million people bitten by snakes annually. It is reported that 100,000 die from the bites while a further 400,000 are disabled or disfigured.
