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Bringing antivenoms to Sub-Saharan Africa

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To reduce unacceptably high death rates from snakebite envenomation, sub-Saharan Africa must adopt not only a new generation of multivalent biotech antivenoms, but also an infrastructure to deliver them.

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Acknowledgements

Many people have contributed to this initiative and continue to do so. From the Republic of Benin, we wish to warmly acknowledge the absolutely essential work of all the health personnel involved in the ongoing clinical trials. From the Instituto Bioclon (Mexico City), the makers of Africamyn, for their consistent support in every imaginable way: J. López de Silanes, J. Paniagua-Solís, J. Estévez and others; from the Instituto de Biotecnología, B. Ramos-Cerrillo and Adolfo de Roodt. From Latoxan (France), Y. Doljansky and F. Principaud. And to all the participants at the 2ème Colloque sur les envenimations en Afrique, Cotonou, 2004, who have contributed, and continue to contribute, invaluable epidemiological data for quite a few West and Central African countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Roberto P. Stock and Alejandro Alagón are at the Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IBt/UNAM) Av. Universidad 2001, Cuernavaca, Morelos 62210, Mexico,

    Roberto P Stock & Alejandro Alagón

  2. Achille Massougbodji is at the Faculté des Sciences de la Santé, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin,

    Achille Massougbodji

  3. Jean-Philippe Chippaux is at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, La Paz, Bolivia. rstock@ibt.unam.mx,

    Jean-Philippe Chippaux

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  1. Roberto P Stock
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  2. Achille Massougbodji
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  3. Alejandro Alagón
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  4. Jean-Philippe Chippaux
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Competing interests

We have a research grant from Instituto Biolclon, S.A. de C.V. (a Mexican producer of antivenoms for developing snake antivenom to be used in Africa. R.P.S. and A.A. also receive consultation fees from Bioclon.

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Stock, R., Massougbodji, A., Alagón, A. et al. Bringing antivenoms to Sub-Saharan Africa. Nat Biotechnol 25, 173–177 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0207-173

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