According to World Health Organization stats, nearly 140,000 people die annually around the globe from venomous snakebites, with most of them succumbing to the snake's venom before they can get emergency assistance. A California doctor hopes his idea will stymie the Grim Reaper in many of those cases, if he can finally get it off the ground. Per the Los Angeles Times, expedition doctor Matthew Lewin has been working for more than 10 years on a drug called varespladib. The medication, now in the works via a Lewin-founded company called Ophirex, basically functions by blocking the toxic phospholipase A2 protein, found in the vast majority of snake venoms.
This protein plays a major role in tissue destruction, paralysis, and other bodily failures after a venomous snake bite, so taking varespladib would, in theory, buy victims time to seek further medical assistance. In 2019, Lewin told NPR he'd originally mulled distributing the drug as a nasal spray, but efforts soon shifted to making varespladib available in pill form. The Ophirex site notes its founding was the result of a "tragic event" that took place in 2001. That event, per the Times, involved California herpetologist Joseph Slowinski, who died 30 hours after he was bitten by a venomous snake in Myanmar. By the time help arrived at the remote site, it was too late.
The drug was originally developed by Eli Lilly and Co., which was exploring its usage as an anti-inflammatory. After varespladib didn't produce the results that company was looking for, it ditched its efforts, and Ophirex scooped up the expired patent on the drug's molecule. Last year, the FDA put varespladib on the "fast track" to speed up the drug's development and safety/efficacy reviews, in addition to a review of Ophirex's manufacturing and distribution plans. The Pentagon has also sunk $24 million into the varespladib project, its curiosity piqued on how varespladib could help military members in the field.
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The drug "may help us widen the window of time needed for evacuation in the event of a snakebite," a rep for the Army Medical Materiel Agency's Warfighter Protection and Acute Care Project tells the Times. "There is also a psychological benefit to having something in your pocket that is lifesaving." Varespladib is currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial in the US and India, with a federal review due sometime in 2024. It's not clear what the price tag for the drug may be, but Ophirex chief Nancy Koch says they want to make it "accessible around the world, and to make that possible we are studying ways to reduce manufacturing costs." More here, including Lewin's own "terrifying" experience as a guinea pig during paralyzing agents testing. (More snakebite stories.)
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