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posted by janrinok on Thursday November 24 2016, @07:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the avoid-long-scaly-things dept.

Doctors are concerned that stocks of anti-venom are running low around the world.

Dr. Richard Clark from UC San Diego Health is an expert in treating snake bite victims. He said, "I think the big deal about antivenoms and shortages in the world right now is that drug companies that make any kind of pharmaceutical product, only make it if it's profitable. And the problem with antivenoms is they tend to be fairly expensive to produce."

It's expensive to produce and there is not enough demand -- so little in fact, that the pharmaceutical company that produced antivenom products stopped making them in 2003. The Food and Drug Administration stepped in and extended the expiration dates of the last remaining supplies to last until June 2016. Clark says it will likely last even longer.

"So, there's still expired antivenom around that we know still works. One day that will be gone unless a company starts to make the coral snake antivenom again," said Clark.

In a case of a lifesaving drug, is it unreasonable to expect a pharmaceutical company to continue making it even though they would make higher profits elsewhere? Is this a good place for governmental incentives?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @08:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @08:55PM (#432586)

    Dude bro, you're so right. The batteries on that satellite [soylentnews.org] didn't disintegrate with age, either. The batteries were sabotaged by the manufacturer to sell more batteries.