Bharat Serums and Vaccines (BSV), a leading biopharmaceutical company in India, has announced a meaningful collaboration with the ‘Evolutionary Venomics Lab’, at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore to develop region-specific antivenoms, thereby, pioneering next-generation snakebite therapy in India.

Snakebite remains a serious public health challenge.  Currently, treatments are based on a single polyvalent antivenom designed for snakebites from the ‘big four’ snakes in the country.

Recent research at the Evolutionary Venomics Lab has highlighted the alarming consequence of the inter and intra-species variation in venoms on the effectiveness of antivenom. The polyvalent antivenom inefficaciously neutralizes the venom from distinct populations of the ‘big four’ snakes, as well many other local clinically important snake species.

Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of region-specific antivenom in the country.  This partnership aims at driving the antivenom development that will deliver efficient snakebite therapy to save lives, limbs, and livelihoods of those in need of the treatment.

In the past, BSV has partnered with IISc to initiate a PCR based risk assessment for various disease in Equines, in line with the WHO, Anti Venom Guidelines 2010. This initiative made BSV the first Indian company to have worked towards risk control of infectious transmission and ensured viral safety of BSV’s equine plasma derived products.