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<blockquote data-quote="dennishoddy" data-source="post: 2995533" data-attributes="member: 5412"><p>Watched a special on Nat Geo today that talked about Sri Lanka losing over a thousand people a year to snake bites while it's almost non-existent in the US. </p><p>Its improving as they are starting to build their antivenom supplies. $30 per dose. </p><p>In the US, it's terribly expensive, and all of it comes from a place in Great Britain. Another company came in and tried to compete, but got sued and is not in business anymore. </p><p></p><p>Every so often, a news story will circulate about a snakebite victim getting another shock: a hospital bill charging them <a href="http://time.com/2897/north-carolina-hospital-bill-snake-bite/" target="_blank">tens</a> to <a href="http://www.10news.com/news/-143k-hospital-bill-shocks-snake-bite-victim" target="_blank">hundreds</a> of <a href="http://kfor.com/2015/07/30/oklahoma-woman-receives-nearly-200000-hospital-bill-after-being-bitten-by-snake/" target="_blank">thousands</a> of dollars. But while antivenom isn’t exactly cheap and easy to make, the price tag that comes along with these life-saving doses has raised eyebrows among even the researchers who make the stuff.</p><p>Getting bitten by a snake isn’t that uncommon – <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/" target="_blank">according to the Centers for Disease Control</a>, about 7,000 to 8,000 people are treated for snakebite every year in the United States alone. <a href="http://www.msf.org/article/global-health-community-slithers-away-snakebite-crisis-antivenom-runs-out" target="_blank">Doctors Without Borders</a> also reports that as many as 100,000 people around the world die from snakebite every year. But even Leslie Boyer, founding director of the University of Arizona’s <a href="http://viper.arizona.edu/" target="_blank">VIPER Institute</a>, was shocked that hospitals can pay up to $2,300 for a single vial of antivenom, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/09/the-crazy-reason-it-costs-14000-to-treat-a-snakebite-with-14-medicine/" target="_blank">Christopher Ingraham writes for <em>The Washington Post</em></a>.</p><p></p><p>The process of making antivenom is complicated. In order to make some of the most common rattlesnake antivenin, sheep have to be injected with the snake’s venom and then have their antibodies harvested by doctors. But after reading <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/20/this-153000-rattlesnake-bite-is-everything-wrong-with-american-health-care/" target="_blank">another of Ingraham’s articles</a> from earlier this summer that analyzed the high cost of antivenom treatment, Boyer realized she didn’t know why the antivenin made in her own labs was so prohibitively expensive.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Physicians are counseled to steer clear of involvement in the pricing of the drugs we study, for good reason: financial conflict of interest by care providers imperils our ability to provide objective patient care,” Boyer wrote in an article that will be published in <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/281226188_On_1000-fold_pharmaceutical_price_markups_and_why_drugs_cost_more_in_the_US_than_in_Mexico" target="_blank">an upcoming issue of <em>The American Journal of Medicine</em></a>. “We were crestfallen to discover...that the chosen wholesale price for this otherwise excellent drug was set too high to be cost effective, even in the treatment of critically ill children...Somehow, a US drug whose sister product retailed in Mexico at $100 was resulting in bills to Arizona patients of between $7,900 and $39,652 per vial.”</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/" target="_blank">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/</a></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Read more: <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/#3h9F8P6Ahk7iI2jh.99" target="_blank">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/#3h9F8P6Ahk7iI2jh.99</a></p><p>Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! <a href="http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv</a></p><p>Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dennishoddy, post: 2995533, member: 5412"] Watched a special on Nat Geo today that talked about Sri Lanka losing over a thousand people a year to snake bites while it's almost non-existent in the US. Its improving as they are starting to build their antivenom supplies. $30 per dose. In the US, it's terribly expensive, and all of it comes from a place in Great Britain. Another company came in and tried to compete, but got sued and is not in business anymore. Every so often, a news story will circulate about a snakebite victim getting another shock: a hospital bill charging them [URL='http://time.com/2897/north-carolina-hospital-bill-snake-bite/']tens[/URL] to [URL='http://www.10news.com/news/-143k-hospital-bill-shocks-snake-bite-victim']hundreds[/URL] of [URL='http://kfor.com/2015/07/30/oklahoma-woman-receives-nearly-200000-hospital-bill-after-being-bitten-by-snake/']thousands[/URL] of dollars. But while antivenom isn’t exactly cheap and easy to make, the price tag that comes along with these life-saving doses has raised eyebrows among even the researchers who make the stuff. Getting bitten by a snake isn’t that uncommon – [URL='http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/']according to the Centers for Disease Control[/URL], about 7,000 to 8,000 people are treated for snakebite every year in the United States alone. [URL='http://www.msf.org/article/global-health-community-slithers-away-snakebite-crisis-antivenom-runs-out']Doctors Without Borders[/URL] also reports that as many as 100,000 people around the world die from snakebite every year. But even Leslie Boyer, founding director of the University of Arizona’s [URL='http://viper.arizona.edu/']VIPER Institute[/URL], was shocked that hospitals can pay up to $2,300 for a single vial of antivenom, [URL='http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/09/the-crazy-reason-it-costs-14000-to-treat-a-snakebite-with-14-medicine/']Christopher Ingraham writes for [I]The Washington Post[/I][/URL]. The process of making antivenom is complicated. In order to make some of the most common rattlesnake antivenin, sheep have to be injected with the snake’s venom and then have their antibodies harvested by doctors. But after reading [URL='http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/20/this-153000-rattlesnake-bite-is-everything-wrong-with-american-health-care/']another of Ingraham’s articles[/URL] from earlier this summer that analyzed the high cost of antivenom treatment, Boyer realized she didn’t know why the antivenin made in her own labs was so prohibitively expensive. “Physicians are counseled to steer clear of involvement in the pricing of the drugs we study, for good reason: financial conflict of interest by care providers imperils our ability to provide objective patient care,” Boyer wrote in an article that will be published in [URL='http://www.researchgate.net/publication/281226188_On_1000-fold_pharmaceutical_price_markups_and_why_drugs_cost_more_in_the_US_than_in_Mexico']an upcoming issue of [I]The American Journal of Medicine[/I][/URL]. “We were crestfallen to discover...that the chosen wholesale price for this otherwise excellent drug was set too high to be cost effective, even in the treatment of critically ill children...Somehow, a US drug whose sister product retailed in Mexico at $100 was resulting in bills to Arizona patients of between $7,900 and $39,652 per vial.” [URL]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/[/URL] Read more: [URL]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/#3h9F8P6Ahk7iI2jh.99[/URL] Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! [URL]http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv[/URL] Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter [/QUOTE]
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