TC PALM (Florida) 22 September 06 Scientists seek new sources for dwindling coral snake antivenin (James Kirley)
Two potentially fatal coral snake bites on Florida's Treasure Coast in recent weeks brought an unwelcome reminder that medicine for treating the native snake's venom is no longer made.
But while stockpiles of coral snake antivenin are shrinking nationwide, a Texas A&M University scientist is studying an antidote to the snake's cousin in Mexico to see if it can help save bite victims north of the border.
"We're working on something," said Dr. Elda Sanchez, assistant director at Texas A&M's Natural Toxins Research Center in Kingsville, Texas.
"Latin America has many species of coral snakes," Sanchez said in a phone interview. "There are other products from other countries."
She declined to name the Mexican pharmaceutical company that makes the antivenin in her study.
If the company's antivenin works for the two coral snake species found in the Southeastern states and Texas, Sanchez said the company could decide to seek approval to market it in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration could also allow the antivenin's use on an emergency basis, she said.
In one locally publicized case, Jensen Beach resident Patricia Facchini was bitten by a coral snake Sept. 8 while weeding under a bush in her yard and had to be treated at Martin Memorial Medical Center.
Martin Memorial Director of Pharmacy Emil Varelli said coral snake antivenin had been administered to another patient about two weeks earlier, but he had no further information on that case.
Only about 10 people are bitten by coral snakes in the United State each year, Sanchez said.
"There isn't money to be made making (antivenin) because not too many people get bitten," she said.
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals spokeswoman Natalie de Vane said her company decided to stop making North American Coral Snake antivenin in mid-2001. The following year, Wyeth closed its Marietta, Pa., plant that made antivenins to treat the bites of coral snakes and North American pit vipers — which include rattlesnakes, cottonmouth moccasins and copperheads.
Behind the decision to close the plant was the prospect of competition from Protherics, a Cheshire, England-based manufacturer that got FDA approval in October 2000 to market antivenin to treat the bites of North American pit vipers, de Vane said. Protherics estimated that pit vipers bite about 8,000 Americans each year.
Coral snake venom is different from the venom of rattlesnakes and other pit vipers.
Dr. Cynthia Lewis-Younger, managing medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center at Tampa General Hospital, said pit viper venom causes internal bleeding and cell damage.
Lewis-Younger said coral snake venom causes suffocation by paralyzing nerves needed to breathe. Fewer people have died from coral snake bites since ventilators have become common in hospitals during recent decades, she said.
FDA spokesman Paul Richards said Wyeth is still licensed to produce coral snake antivenin, but that doesn't mean it must.
"As a regulatory agency, we don't have the authority to force anybody to produce antivenins and vaccines," Richards said.
Snakebite Medicine: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals stopped making coral snake antivenin and closed its Marietta, Pa., production facility in 2002. There is enough of Wyeth's North American Coral Snake antivenin stockpiled to last another 4 1/2 years from present, company spokeswoman Natalie de Vane said.
Scientists seek new sources for dwindling coral snake antivenin

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