Costa Rica’s lead researcher on snakebites and anti-venom serums says the health problem is unattractive to pharmaceutical companies due to the low profit margin, reported the Spanish news agency EFE this week.

In an interview with EFE, Alberto Alape Giron, professor of biochemistry at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) said, “It’s not profitable (for these firms) to manufacture anti-venoms and the profit margins are not so noteworthy because this kind of (problem) exists mainly in poor countries.”

“Basically, the snake problem is (one) of poor people in poor countries – affecting rural communities, economically and socially marginalized people in developing countries,” he said, saying most snake bite victims are young adults and children that are made vulnerable while harvesting agricultural crops.

Costa Rica, with poisonous snakes found virtually throughout the entire country, is home to one of the world’s best research centers on snake venom, the Clodomiro Picado Institute (ICP, its initials in Spanish) run by the UCR.

The institute is directed by Alape Girón and is a major world supplier of serum for snakebite treatments.

Costa Rica recently successfully pushed for the World Health Organization to include snakebites on the list of neglected tropical illnesses which they hope will give greater support to addressing the problem.

“The WHO decision means that it’s going to allow attention to be focused on this problem with resources,” said Alape Girón.

Worldwide an estimated 2.5 million people are bitten by poisonous snakes each year of which 120,000 die, and some 300,000 are left with a physical or psychological impairment as a result.

 

Africa suffers from the worst anti-venom distribution network and thus suffers disproportionately from snakebite deaths and injuries, reported EFE, whereas Asia and Latin America have a better but still deficient supply network, and health systems that often do not extend to remote areas.

According to Alape Girón, “Pharmaceutical firms and private companies are not paying attention to the effects of poisonous snakebites.”