Sherlock
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- Jun 2, 2018
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The Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Centre (KSRIC), partly funded by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, is working to produce East Africa’s first antivenom and have it on the market within five years.
More so the anti-venom will be affordable, it will be about a third that of an imported product, often priced at about $100 ensuring even Kenyans of humble means can afford the live saving jab.
“Up to (now), no one has produced any kind of antivenom in Kenya,” said senior snake handler Geoffrey Maranga Kepha.
How they intend to do it
Currently, nearly 100 snakes live at the research centre in a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi. (KSRIC).
Researchers there extract venom and study it before injecting small amounts into donor animals, such as sheep, which then produce antibodies to be harvested and purified into antivenom.
According to the research centre, at the moment there are only two effective antivenoms available in Kenya, from India and Mexico.
The Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Centre. (KSRIC)
Vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur, part of French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, stopped producing antivenom for African snakes in 2010 because low demand and competition from a cheaper supplier made it unprofitable.
Sanofi wants to share its knowledge with partners who could handle production, the company told Reuters in a statement.
GEORGE TUBEI
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Email: eyewitness@pulselive.co.ke
More so the anti-venom will be affordable, it will be about a third that of an imported product, often priced at about $100 ensuring even Kenyans of humble means can afford the live saving jab.
“Up to (now), no one has produced any kind of antivenom in Kenya,” said senior snake handler Geoffrey Maranga Kepha.
How they intend to do it
Currently, nearly 100 snakes live at the research centre in a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi. (KSRIC).
Researchers there extract venom and study it before injecting small amounts into donor animals, such as sheep, which then produce antibodies to be harvested and purified into antivenom.
According to the research centre, at the moment there are only two effective antivenoms available in Kenya, from India and Mexico.
The Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Centre. (KSRIC)
Vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur, part of French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, stopped producing antivenom for African snakes in 2010 because low demand and competition from a cheaper supplier made it unprofitable.
Sanofi wants to share its knowledge with partners who could handle production, the company told Reuters in a statement.
GEORGE TUBEI
Tell your friends
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
WhatsApp: +254708994405
Email: eyewitness@pulselive.co.ke
