Drugs for Cytotoxic Snakebite
Kofi Annan called snakebite “the biggest public health crisis you’ve never heard of”; killing over 100,000 people yearly and maiming approximately 400,000, it remains one of the most neglected of neglected tropical diseases. In recent years the World Health Organization (WHO) has labelled snakebite a Priority Neglected Tropical Disease with the goal of halving the global burden of snakebite by 2030. Our snakebite research, completed in collaboration with the Centre for Snakebite Research & Interventions at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, revolves around the development of novel snakebite therapies with a particular focus on synergistic small molecule drug combinations and their translation into suitable formulations for the treatment of local tissue destruction caused by cytotoxic snake venoms.