Pakistan plans on starting mass-production of snakebites anti-venom and a rabies vaccine next year to end its reliance on imports from India.

Researchers at Karachi's Dow University of Health Sciences claim that its biotechnological facility will be able to produce 700,000 vials of venom antiserum annually to overcome the supply shortages in the country.

Currently, Pakistan requires up to 300,000 anti- venom doses for snakebites and 2 million doses of rabies vaccine every year, as reported by Arab News. While most of this demand is met by Indian imports, strained relations in the past year have led to temporary shortages in the country, prompting it to invest in mass-production of anti-venom and rabies vaccine.

According to Prof. Dr. Mohammed Saeed Quraishy, Vice Chancellor of Karachi's Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Pakistan was not able to meet 70 percent of the demand for anti-rabies vaccine. The main cause of rabies is dog bites and it is reported that around 1 million dog-bite incidents take place in Pakistan every year.

While there is no comprehensive data available on snakebites, venom of cobras, kraits, Russell's vipers and saw-scaled vipers are the common snake species that have caused deaths in Pakistan. It is also important to note that most victims of snake and dog bites belonged to the poorer segments of the Pakistani population.

The manufacturing facility at the Dow Life Sciences Institute is certified, inspected and registered by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for mass production of anti-snake venom, anti-rabies sera, typhoid vaccine, and tetanus toxoid. This facility also possesses enough antibodies for trial purposes.

Before local production gains momentum, Pakistan will meet local demands through Chinese imports, which will be repackaged and marketed at the Dow Life Sciences Institute.

Dr. Ghazala Parveen, Head of Vaccines Production at the National Institute of Health (NIH) also told Arab News that “with latest machinery and equipment at hand, we hope that country will not be importing these products from India in future."

It is important to note that self-reliance in rabies vaccine production may take more time as compared to anti-venom, which may happen sooner because of previous successful experiments in this area and increased production of immunoglobulins, which is used in the anti-venom therapy.

It is also expected that prices of the locally produced anti-venom and rabies vaccine will be lower than the imported ones.