LYON, France, Sept. 7 (UPI) — French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur says it’s no longer profitable to make one of the most vital anti-venom for snakebites in Africa.
Fav-Afrique counters the toxins of some of the world’s most deadly venomous snakes. Critics of the move say its removal from the market — Sanofi Pasteur expects its current supply to be depleted by June of next year — will put thousands of victims in Sub-Saharan Africa at risk.
“Fav-Afrique is no longer being manufactured so vulnerable farmers will lose their lives or limbs,” Abdulrazaq Habib, a professor of infectious and tropical diseases at Nigeria’s Bayero University, told The Independent.
Sanofi Pasteur says cheap drugs from Brazil, India and Mexico have forced it out of the anti-venom market. The technology used to make Fav-Afrique will be adapted for the production of rabies treatments.
Following the announcement by Sanofi Pasteur, healthcare advocates called for swift action by the World Health Organization and governments in a position to make a difference.
“In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 30,000 people die from snakebite every year and an estimated 8,000 undergo amputations,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) wrote in a press release. “The number of victims is likely to rise as existing stockpiles of one of the most effective antivenoms for sub-Saharan Africa are due to expire in June 2016.”
Venomous snakebites are common, especially in Africa, but are relatively ignored by world health bodies.
“We are now facing a real crisis so why do governments, pharmaceutical companies and global health bodies slither away when we need them most?” said Dr. Gabriel Alcoba, a medical advisor with MSF’s snakebite program. “Imagine how frightening it must be to be bitten by a snake — to feel the pain and venom spread through your body — knowing it may kill you and there is no treatment available or that you can’t afford to pay for it?”
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