Serious antivenom shortage in the face of a global snakebite crisis

At the end of June 2016, the last remaining supplies of an important, safe, and effective antivenom expired.

The antidote, known as FAV-Afrique, is what Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has relied on to treat snakebites in sub-Saharan Africa. It can be used to treat bites from ten venomous snakes, including some of the most dangerous in Africa. That's particularly useful in the common cases where a person doesn't know what type of snake bit them.

While other antivenoms exist, no one knows yet if any of these potential alternatives will safely be able to fill the hole left by an antidote that can be used against so many different types of snakebite. They will have to use alternatives anyway, hoping they work.

"It's a shame that a product that all experts agree was good was abandoned," says Julien Potet, policy advisor for neglected tropical diseases at MSF. "We're putting the lives of some patients at risk."

The dire situation is no surprise — MSF, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and others have known that Sanofi Pasteur had stopped producing FAV-Afrique years before. MSF had hoped to convince the pharmaceutical company to accelerate the transfer of their technology to another company and to continue producing antivenom in the interim period, but that still hasn't happened. Even if they find someone else willing to produce the treatment, Potet says it'll take a couple of years for a new company to get production going and to get antivenom distributed.

In a statement emailed by a representative of Sanofi, the company explained that they ceased production of FAV-Afrique after lower cost products led to a "steep drop in orders" for their antivenom.