Anti-venom, produced in Mexico approved by the FDA [2]
An anti-venom being produced in Mexico was just approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [3] as a scorpion sting treatment. This makes it the first drug permitted for this use by the FDA. This accomplishment is the result of 12 years of research and development by a variety of academic and clinical intellectuals.
Scorpion stings can cause blurred vision, slurred speech, vomiting, nausea, and even death. This scorpion sting treatment anti-venom, produced in Mexico, could bring an end to all of that. Scorpion stings are seen most prominently in Arizona, Southern Nevada, and New Mexico. Additionally, scorpion stings are even more numerous in Mexico. The University of Arizona also claims that the anti-venom has been creating interest in other countries susceptible to scorpion stings, like Morocco. Boyer led clinical trials on 2,000 individuals for the new scorpion sting treatment drug, known as Anascorp, in Las Vegas and Arizona. The drug worked marvelously and children’s symptoms vanished within a few hours. Until 2004, the FDA allowed hospitals to use anti-venom in hospitals even though it was not FDA approved because it had been used for 50 years prior.
In 2004, however, the woman who had been producing the scorpion sting treatment drug retired, limiting the stock of anti-venom. Dr. Boyer, the director of the University of Arizona’s VIPER (Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology, and Emergency Response) Institute, had traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1999 and met with researches who were examining the new anti-venom made by Mexico City’s Instituto Bioclon. She received a grant from the FDA to administer research on the drug during the period in which the old anti-venom was running out. Boyer stated,” We timed it perfectly…we never had to find out what would have happened if all rural Arizona was left without an anti-venom.” She went on to say, “We strongly believe, based on history, that we would have had deaths had we not started this project in 2004.”