snakebite-treatment
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Jeremy Gowler Is Building for the Minutes Before Medicine Arrives
After two decades commercializing vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, the Ophirex CEO is applying an operator’s eye to a stubborn logistical gap: what can happen between a snakebite and the hospital.
Ophirex, Inc.
Ophirex, Inc. is a Corte Madera, California public benefit biotech company building the first genuinely new approach to snakebite in more than a century. Its lead candidate, varespladib, is a small-molecule inhibitor of sPLA2 - an enzyme found in roughly 95% of snake venoms - formulated for easy oral or injectable use so treatment can begin in minutes, in the field, rather than hours later at a distant hospital. Founded by expedition physician Matthew Lewin, the company targets a neglected killer that claims roughly 100,000 lives a year, aiming at both human and veterinary markets across the developing world and defense applications.