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Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Grade Venom
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by Meltdown on June 10, 2001
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I've read recent news reports about FDA clinical trial successes in treating cancers, arthritis and blood clots with medicines that contain proteins and enzymes taken from various snake venoms.
My mother has rheumatoid arthritis, Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer, blood clotting problems, and my father has been going through treatments for prostate cancer.
Perhaps this is a business opportunity for me - to manufacture pharmaceutical grade venom for use by research firms that develop medical treatments. I am gathering information to complete a business plan and I need help. I have some money, and if the business case is one where I could make money AND benefit humanity by supplying research labs a crucial ingredient for discovering cures, I can't think of what would be better.
I've been gathering as much information as I can, but am sorely lacking in some very critical information. Here's what I think I understand, and would greatly appreciate advice, help and/or business partners.
KEEPING SNAKES:
Okay, no chance I'm keeping venomous snakes in my home. I'm talking about a BUSINESS which means leasing office space and creating a central "snake room" with sealed surrounding anterior rooms to ensure that if a snake were to get loose from the innermost room, there is a concealed barrier with the other sealed rooms.
I'm not going to go tromping through the desert picking up snakes. I imagine I'll need to purchase a good number of healthy snakes from reputable breeders/suppliers.
COLLECTION OF VENOM:
One thing is sure - the rattlesnake roundup method of showing off how to collect venom into a mason jar does not yield a useable sample. Clearly there must be a hygienic way of gathering the venom from very specific snakes that are healthy and not over-milked (I'm assuming that over-milking snakes harms the snakes and does not yield useable viable strong venom. The safety and health of the snake MUST be considered.)
This is what I don't know anything about: what do pharmaceutical companies need? Not only which snake venoms, but how do they need it collected - certainly not in a mason jar. Do I need to do some kind of vacuum-sealed collection process? Do the samples need to be cryogenically treated?
What equipment is needed to complete this task of not only gathering the samples but storage and handling? I imagine that this is where a good bulk of investment money will go - centrifuges?? Cryogenic equipment??
TO WHOM DO I SUPPLY VENOM?
Certainly these companies do NOT buy their samples from just anybody. Duh. How do I build the relationships needed with the right companies? Who ARE these companies? I certainly would need to know what their requirements are so that I can provide good records of the snakes, their health, their health records, pictures, federal, state and local records of proper licenses and permits etc. Before I can apply for USDA and FDA permits, and snake licenses, I have much more information I need as those will certainly not be the only barriers to entry for the completion of this business plan.
STEPS I'M TAKING:
Well I used to have snakes as a kid so I'm familiar with the handling of non-venomous snakes. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I AM afraid of being bitten…by ANYTHING, dogs, cats, birds, humans…so of course I have a healthy dose of respect for proper handling procedures. I have no intentions of strapping on my steel-toed boots and a pair of chain mail gloves and havin' at it.
I'm working with the Houston zoo to volunteer in the herp house to learn how to respectfully handle venomous snakes. I need to have a good understanding of the snakes themselves so that if I were to actually go ahead with this business idea that I understand the very essence of their care.
I hope that I do not sound like a total lunatic, but I am genuinely interested in finding out if this is a viable business, one that respects the snakes - the care, health, handling, and keeping of the snakes is critical; not only for the purpose of collecting good quality venom, but because I respect all living things. It seems to me that 98% of everyone hates or fears snakes, but they may hold key elements that ends up saving lives.
And while there is surely plenty of competition, there is clearly still not enough of the high-quality stuff being made since prices seem awfully high to me. It's clearly a case of supply and demand. If there were a sufficient number of people providing THE HIGHEST QUALITY PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE venom, the price would not be so high. I may be wrong, and this is part of what I need to understand.
I can be reached at laura.m.mildon@mail.sprint.com, and am eager to learn if anybody has expertise in this area or is interested in partnering on this venture.
Many thanks for your opinions, thoughts, advice, Laura.
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RE: Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Grade Venom
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by TIMFRIEDE on June 11, 2001
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Hi Laura, sorry to hear about your parents. Your questions are good and I will try to answer them. I'll get right to the point, here's what you'll need to do your gig. You would need about 4-5 people who are masters in their domain,or a person that can do it all, but that's tough. It's not a one person job if you want to do things correctly. The best way to start is to open it to the public and milk creatures for vistors and educate them. This will fund venom research and take the financial pressure off. You'll need av permits(USDA and FDA) and about 10g's in av for protection, this could take a year to get. Then you'll need the equipment> -70C freezer, freeze drier, centrifuge(maybe up to 30g force), HPLC, CZE equipment for protein separation. Then you'll need about 1-2,000 snakes and the equipment to keep them in. Or, you can get into the inverts, a better market, tough to milk. Then you need to pass this plan in the area you plan on doing this, this is tough(personnel exp.). Then you need insurance(liability,personnel) and attorneys. As far as the people you would need> a milker, a protein separation person, a person that is well versed in medicating animals(fecals,bacteria cultures), you need to protect your investment, a secretary, and a taxonomy person for proper classification of animals. Or, you can find someone to do it all, but I found out it is easier to get people for each division. Everyone can overlap to help out also. The hardest position is finding the milkman, the rest is easy. This is what I'm doing and it's tough, but you can do it if you want. Good luck, Tim(milkman).
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RE: Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Grade Venom
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by Meltdown on June 12, 2001
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Hi Tim,
Thank you for your response. I hate to watch how my parents are going through the treatments that they are. I really hate watching a disease that eats up not only my mother's bones and cartilage, but destroys her immune system. I certainly do not entertain being a one woman operation on this. I'm a business type person, I know well the advantages of hiring the people that know how to do their thing well. This is why I need to know who and what's involved.
Let me go over some of your responses because I find that when I'm researching for business cases that initial answers lead to new questions.
1) Open a portion of the business (or make the initial business) an educational one - demonstrate to the public the fabulous things about snakes, show them how milking is done and what venom is etc. and so forth. When you say this venom will fund research…that's the part that's tricky. To WHOM do I sell this initial venom to fund venom research? Now THAT'S a toughie…from what I can tell.
When I get blood drawn from a lab, it's into a hermetically sealed tube with a goo at the bottom that preserves or separates the blood. Is the same thing needed for my reptilian friends?
2) USDA and FDA permits. Roger that. I'm sure there's a whole batch more of other documentation and permits I'll need beyond that. But that's cost of doing business.
3) Equipment: Ummm, could you possibly tell me where I get this equipment? Medical supply house? Can I buy it used? Could I partner up with a lab that needs the venom and they would supply me the equipment and get their venom at a reduced rate? Thoughts?
4) Snakes: 1-2,00 of them. Hmmm, what species though? Is this a part of calling on labs to determine which venom from which species is most desirable for their research? Okay, I'm trying to do my homework, forgive me for sounding like a drooler, but what's an "invert"? If that's a better market, then alrighty! Tougher to milk…umm, than what, a rattler? Maybe the real money to be made is by selling self-milking devices that don't require a handler and yet get a sterile sample. Feeling inventive?
5) Keeping of snakes: from what I gather on herp sites, you have to keep the snakes in separate cages. Help me with my math here, but am I really looking at 2,000+ cages? Eeek! Also, how big do they have to be? One site I saw suggests that if you have a four-foot long snake, the cage has to be at least four feet wide in one area so the snake can stretch out. At this rate I'll need a darned stadium. Is this right?
6) Of all the mentioned support staff, I'd like to learn to be a milkmaid - Laura, the Mild Mannered Milk Maiden…as I'm certainly not trained in the medical aspects of caring for snakes and will gladly hire that done. The health of the snakes is key, but I would have no hope of being expert in that area. Attorney, secretary, operations manager etc., all elements to be hired.
7) Cleaning of cages: how often do the cages need to be cleaned? Is there an easy way to do this? With 2000+ cages, jeesh, that's a full-time job for a few people as far as I can tell.
8) Milkman - you say this is a tough person to get…umm, you're a milkman. Where do you live? Is this how you make your living? Do you have 2,000 snakes? Is there a way to combine resources to create the whole picture here? I certainly cannot do it all by myself, but am willing to explore how we tie in the talents of many into one profitable business that promotes snakes, their venom, and research so that people's lives can be saved.
Thanks for the feedback!
Laura
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