Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of work to support the distribution of snake anti-venom products in developing countries; and whether his Department supports any such project.

Each year snakebites kill more than 80,000 people and at least 450,000 people are thought to suffer life-changing injuries such as loss of limbs and permanent disability.

There are major technical challenges for the production and distribution of anti-venoms in low- and middle-income countries, including lack of quality anti-venoms, high cost of anti-venoms, poor regulation, poor distribution policies and marketing of inappropriate or poor-quality anti-venoms.

DFID recently launched a £9 million Research programme to develop new snakebite treatments which will be effective against multiple species, affordable, stable in tropical temperatures and easy to use in local communities, to overcome some of the distribution challenges.