# Development of World's First Fully Human Broad Spectrum Anti-Snake Venom

> **NIH NIH R44** · CENTIVAX INC · 2024 · $995,570

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Snakebite envenoming poses a global risk to human health. For over 125 years, antivenoms have consisted of
animal-derived polyclonal serum immunoglobulin G (IgG). In recent decades, IgG digested into antigen-binding
fragments Fab(2) has been found to reduce some of the most severe side-effects of non-human antivenom.
These antivenoms are obtained by immunizing horses or sheep with individual snake venom, in order to produce
a product that is effective only against those specific snake species. There are currently over 40 antivenom
products against individual snake species, and these treatments all present several challenges, including early-
onset adverse reactions to animal plasma derived antivenoms, shortened half-life, need for repeated intravenous
(IV) infusion by medical personnel, and correct identification of the specific snake. In contrast, human
recombinant broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) capable of recognizing shared toxins found across all snake
venoms would enable the production of a single broad-spectrum product to treat all snakebite. Human IgG bnAbs
would avoid the serum sickness and anaphylaxis risk inherent to non-human antivenom, making possible safe
use of intramuscular (IM) delivery and field deployment of a full IgG product with a 3-week half-life. We will extend
our work from the Phase I, where fully-human, bnAbs identified from a unique antibody repertoire were
characterized and validated to have broad in vivo efficacy. Now, Centivax will complete the discovery of bnAbs
against the remaining key toxins common to all snake venom, for the development of VenPen, a broad-spectrum,
thermostabilized, lyophilized, fully human-derived antivenom, with reduced need for refrigeration or training and
capable of IM delivery a field-deployable dual-chamber injector. Uniquely, these antibodies were isolated from a
unique hyper-immune subject whose immune system has developed broadly neutralizing, highly-specialized
anti-snake venom antibodies through a history of documented escalating dose self-immunizations over 17+
years with diverse snake venoms. Centivax is well on the way to developing VenPen universal antivenom, with
one broadly-neutralizing in vivo protective antibody to long-neurotoxins already developed and bnAbs to the
other four most dangerous toxins in various stages of development. Aim 1: Complete the development of the
elapid cocktail by identifying bnAbs against the remaining dominant toxins in the Elapidae snake family and
demonstrate protection in vivo against whole venom of diverse elapid snake genera of medical consequence.
Aim 2: Complete the development of identifying bnAbs against dominant toxins in the Viperidae family, and
characterize the protection in vivo against diverse genera of viperids of medical consequence. Aim 3: Combine
and formulate the final VenPen bnAb cocktail for lyophilization for use in both IV vials as well as rapid IM delivery
dual chamber auto-injector. The potential benefits a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10908341
- **Project number:** 5R44AI147898-04
- **Recipient organization:** CENTIVAX INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Jacob Glanville
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $995,570
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-14 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10908341

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10908341, Development of World's First Fully Human Broad Spectrum Anti-Snake Venom (5R44AI147898-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10908341. Licensed CC0.

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