Antivenom Vaccines Market to Record an Exponential CAGR by 2025

Posted by Shirish Wadaskar on December 17th, 2017

Snakebite envenoming is a catastrophic global health issue that kills and incapacitates millions of people annually. It has been declared a global public health emergency. Empirical data suggests that an accurate information on the burden of snakebite is unavailable and this has resulted in epidemiological knowledge gap in this field. Research findings from more than 100 countries spread across 21 geographical regions have brought to light that at least 421,000 envenomings and 20,000 snakebite deaths occur each year globally. However, the expected toll could be as high as 1,841,000 envenomings and 94,000 deaths due to snakebite globally. The highest burden of snakebites is witnessed in regions such as South Asia, South East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

Snakebite ranks low on international public health agendas as there is limited information on morbidity and mortality due to snakebite. This low priority has adversely impacted the snakebite management and in drafting out snakebite management related strategies; major fallouts of which are lack of antivenom regulation, poor access to antivenom vaccines, and untrained health workers for snakebite management. Over and above this, inconsistent demand for antivenom products, irregularities associated with manufacturers receiving payment, inappropriate clinical use of antivenom products, dearth of animals required for raising antisera, and high cost of maintaining livestock for antivenom production are some pivotal factors that have significantly deterred increased output of antivenom vaccines from manufacturers.

Despite such unfavorable business environment, antivenom manufacturers are taking positive strides toward full implementation of international guidelines and are incessantly trying to improve quality control procedures. Collaborative efforts of the Global Snakebite Initiative Limited (GSI), an internationally active non-profit organization, and Health Action International (HAI), an international NGO, to address the neglected global tragedy of snakebite envenoming are likely to entice focused attention from the global health community and donors.

The recent landmark decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June 2017 to adopt snakebite envenoming as a ‘category A’ neglected tropical disease (NTD) is expected to ignite the development and implementation of the long-awaited global strategy for control and eradication of snakebite envenoming. The WHO’s decision was based on the recommendation from its Strategic and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) for NTDs.

Antivenom vaccines are considered the only cure for venomous bites and stings. Various reptile bites that require an antivenom vaccine include snakes, scorpions, spiders, and others. The global antivenom vaccines market comprehensively analyzes the dynamics and competitive landscape prevailing in the market. The global market for antivenom vaccines has been analyzed from three different perspectives: type of antivenom, type of reptile, and type of venom.

In terms of type of antivenom, the market has been further sub-divided into monovalent antivenom and polyvalent antivenom. In terms of type of reptile, the market has been further classified into snakes, scorpions, spiders, and others. On the basis of type of venom, the market has been further segmented into cardiotoxic, hemotoxic, neurotoxic, cytotoxic, proteolysis, myotoxic, and others.

Geographically, the report on the antivenom vaccines market provides granular insights on North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Players operating in the global market are Alomone Labs, Ltd., Medtoxin Venom Laboratories, Micropaharm Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Limited, Protherics PLC, Sigma Aldrich, Institute of Immunology, and Butantan Institute.