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Outside Magazine October 2001
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Medicine
Natural Reactions
A new miracle cure may take the sting out of your next snakebite
By Jason Daley


FOR MORE THAN half a century, hikers have ventured into snake country knowing they might have to strike a Faustian bargain. The good news was that, in the event they tangled with the business end of a rattlesnake, copperhead, or cottonmouth, there was an antidote on ice at the nearest emergency room that could save their lives. The bad news: The venom-neutralizing antibodies were derived from the blood of horses, which meant that people who were allergic to certain horse antibodies (roughly three-quarters of patients) succumbed to serum sickness, a potentially serious flu-like illness that can make you wish you were dead anyway. Well, relief is now at hand—in the form of CroFab, a new antidote that is refined from sheep's blood and has far fewer side effects. The wonder drug, now being produced by the Nashville-based pharmaceutical firm Protherics, is already replacing the old antidote on hospital shelves. There's only one drawback with the ovine antibodies. At $9,300 per 12-vial dose, even the most grateful snakebite victim may feel completely fleeced.


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