Snakebite antivenom supply might run out
U.S. hospitals may run out of drugs to treat people bitten by the poisonous coral snake, as supplies of the only available antivenom drug are set to expire by October, regulators said.
The drug, called Antivenin, is the only medicine on the market approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat coral snake bites. Coral snakes, identified by their distinct red and yellow stripes, are highly poisonous, and their venom contains a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis and death.
"They have a kind of venom that stops your heart and blows out your ability to breathe," Darrel Frost, curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the U.S., the snakes are found mostly in the southern states, including dry and forested parts of Florida, Louisiana and Texas, according to Frost.
Wyeth, now owned by New York-based Pfizer Inc., stopped production of Antivenin in 2003. The drugmaker manufactured a stockpile that was expected to last five years, Gwendolyn Fisher, a Pfizer spokeswoman, said. Hospitals and poison control centers have been relying on this batch of drugs to meet their demand.
About 100 cases of coral snake bites were reported in the U.S. in 2008, the most recent year for which there are figures, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
"There is enough to treat people who are bitten this year and probably through next year," said Cynthia Lewis-Younger, medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa. She said a single vial of the drug costs $1,560, and each patient needs at least three vials to reverse the effects of the venom.
The FDA and Pfizer are working to manage existing supplies, the agency said in a statement. The agency extended the expiration date of the drug until Oct. 31 and may do so again. "FDA will evaluate additional stability data as it becomes available, to support further expiration date extensions," the agency said in the statement.
Coral snakes are extremely reclusive and generally bite humans only when handled or stepped on, according to the National Geographic Web site. They must literally chew on their victim to inject their venom fully, so most bites to humans don't result in death. In fact, no deaths from coral snake bites have been reported in the U.S. since an antivenin was released in 1967, according to National Geographic.