Trials for new Papuan Taipan anti-venom

 By MALUM NALU

YEARS of hard work by a group of Papua New Guinean researchers may soon result in a new treatment for one of the country’s most feared snakebites.

Clinical trials of new anti-venom for the Papuan Taipan will start in May and is anticipated to save hundreds of lives every year.

The project will take three years and will involve up to 380 snakebite patients, who will be treated by Port Moresby General Hospital doctors and nurses according to a carefully-designed protocol approved by all of the various ethics committees.

PNG has some of the highest snakebite rates in the world and in some parts of Central, the mortality rate is several times higher than malaria, tuberculosis and pneumonia, largely because of a lack of interest. 

This has made access to safe, effective treatment scarce and unaffordable.

The high cost of imported Australian anti-venoms has made it increasingly difficult for the PNG government to meet the demand,  and has contributed to the existence of a black market in these products,  which often sees them stolen from hospitals and sold illegally for up to US$3,200.

In 2011, researchers from the University of PNG collaborating with scientists from the University of Costa Rica and the University of Melbourne’s Australian Venom Research Unit and Nossal Institute for Global Health, announced the successful pre-clinic testing of a new, low-cost Papuan Taipan anti-venom, that not only offers a sustainable solution to the problem, but provides the opportunities for PNG to eventually produce its own anti-venoms.

They showed that the new anti-venom, manufactured by the University of Costa Rica’s Instituto Clodomiro Picado, effectively neutralises the lethal effects of Taipan venom in laboratory tests and is suitable for human trials.

Snakebite expert Prof David Warrell, who is in the country to help set up the trials, appealed to snakebite victims to take part in the trials.

“The most important thing to emphasise is that we have a new anti-venom candidate, whose performance in laboratory tests and animals is very promising and we are confident will be the answer to the long-term problem of Taipan bites in PNG.

“We have to do trials before we can launch this new antidote with complete confidence.

“It depends on patients with snakebite coming in as quickly as possible to the hospital so that we can care for them, and that we can advance medical knowledge at the same time.” 

Project coordinator David “Snakeman” Williams said legal agreements between all parties concerned had to be put in place before trials could start.

“We expect that all of that will be done over the next three weeks,” he said.

“Our aim is to start formally recruiting patients into the clinical trials around the beginning of May.”