A Bengal startup’s effort to develop region-specific antivenom is exposing a largely invisible weakness in India’s snakebite response: the medicines used across the country are made mainly from venom collected in two districts of Tamil Nadu, even though snake venom can vary by geography, diet and environment. The proposed Bengal-specific product is therefore not just a biotechnology project. It is also a test of whether public health systems can match treatment to the ecological conditions in which disease and injury occur.
Monosha Biotech, a startup incubated and mentored by the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, is extracting venom from snakes found across Bengal at a laboratory in Baruipur, in South 24-Parganas. Co-founder Saurabh Ray told The Telegraph that the company aims to provide Bengal-specific antivenom to pharmaceutical manufacturers. The first commercial batch is expected to reach the market by 2028, according to Ray.
The company was founded in March 2017 by Ray and his wife, Neha Garodia. It received incubation, seed funding and guidance from IIM Calcutta’s innovation ecosystem after being selected among the top 50 startups in a competition organised by IIM Calcutta and the Union government’s Department of Science and Technology. Monosha received sanction from Bengal’s forest department in 2020 to collect snakes and extract venom.
The institutional arrangement is significant. The startup works with the state forest and health departments, while its venom is shared with pharmaceutical companies that manufacture antivenom. A senior forest official said Monosha had approval from the office of Bengal’s chief wildlife warden to collect snakes rescued from human habitats and extract their venom. A senior state health department official said the state had issued an expression of interest for region-specific antivenom a few years earlier, before any final tender process.
That chain of approvals illustrates why antivenom is not only a laboratory question. It sits at the intersection of wildlife regulation, public procurement, pharmaceutical manufacturing, hospital protocols and emergency access. A more effective product cannot improve outcomes unless it is manufactured at scale, cleared for use, purchased by health systems and available where patients arrive after a bite.
India’s standard polyvalent antivenom is made by injecting a large animal, usually a horse, with a mixture of venom from four medically significant snakes: the Indian cobra, common krait, Russell’s viper and saw-scaled viper. Antibodies produced in the animal’s blood plasma are then harvested and purified into the injectable medicine.
Commercial manufacturers largely procure venom from the Irula Snake Catchers’ Industrial Cooperative Society, a tribal-run organisation operating in Chengalpattu and Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. The concentration of venom collection in those districts has created a national supply model built around a geographically narrow source. Experts cited by The Telegraph say that model can produce efficacy gaps because venom differs between regions.
The issue is especially relevant in Bengal because the local composition of medically important snakes is not identical to the composition used in the national polyvalent mixture. Somnath Das, head of forensic medicine and toxicology at SSKM Hospital and a member of Bengal’s expert committee on snakebite management, said the saw-scaled viper is not found in Bengal, while Russell’s vipers are responsible for most of the state’s reported snakebite deaths. Venom from the other three snakes is collected in Bengal, he said, but the saw-scaled viper venom continues to be sourced from Tamil Nadu.
The distinction matters because a medicine designed around a national average may not perform identically against venom from every local population. The supplied report does not establish that existing antivenom is ineffective in Bengal as a general rule. It does, however, document concern among medical experts that some patients die despite adherence to established treatment guidelines, and it identifies regional venom variation as a possible reason for studying a more tailored product.
Bengal’s existing snakebite management system follows a module issued by the state health department alongside national guidelines. Das estimated that around 500 snakebite deaths are reported in Bengal each year. He said there was a strong case for region-specific antivenom because most of those victims were bitten by Russell’s vipers.
The gap between protocol and outcome is also shaped by the conditions in which bites occur. Snakebite emergencies often begin outside formal healthcare infrastructure, with delays caused by mistaken identification, difficult transport or unsafe rescue attempts. In November 2019, snake rescuer Anup Ghosh died after receiving antivenom doses three times at government hospitals. The incident raised questions about the dangers of amateur rescue operations and the effectiveness of existing administration protocols.
Recent incidents show how the issue reaches into expanding urban areas. Two children were bitten at schools in Calcutta in August, although both received medical attention in time. In New Town, two fatal snakebites occurred within two weeks in July 2023. One victim was bitten while walking near Downtown Mall in Action Area III. Another, a security guard, mistook the bite for an insect sting, delayed treatment and died while being transferred to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
These cases complicate the assumption that snakebite is only a rural health problem. Housing complexes, schools, construction sites, ponds and undeveloped urban edges can bring people into contact with snakes. When a bite occurs, the quality of the outcome depends on the complete response system: recognition of the bite, safe rescue practices, transport, hospital readiness, correct dosing and the biological suitability of the antivenom.
Urban growth can intensify that exposure without creating a corresponding public-health design response. New Town’s incidents, as reported, occurred in areas combining residential development, open land, ponds, roads and commercial activity. The response of housing complexes—some reportedly spraying carbolic acid and calling snake rescuers—also shows how residents often rely on informal measures when they lack clear, trusted guidance. Such reactions may create a sense of action without addressing the medical emergency after a bite.
The procurement system adds another layer. The state health department sources antivenom from pharmaceutical companies, which in turn have their own suppliers. An expression of interest is used to assess supplier capability and market interest before a final tender. That means the transition from a promising regional venom programme to a medicine available in hospitals requires decisions by several institutions, not only the startup developing the raw material.
Monosha’s proposed 2028 commercial timeline therefore represents a milestone, not the end of the problem. The startup must continue collecting venom legally and safely, pharmaceutical companies must use it in manufacturing, and health authorities must assess whether the resulting product meets clinical and regulatory requirements. The supplied report does not state whether a Bengal-specific antivenom has completed those stages or received approval for routine clinical use.
The project also raises a question about how India designs medical supply chains for geographically diverse risks. A centralised model can simplify procurement and manufacturing, but it may overlook local biological variation. A region-specific model may better reflect local conditions, but it can introduce additional requirements for collection, testing, production, stocking and distribution. The challenge is to determine where standardisation improves access and where local variation is too important to ignore.
For cities, the practical lesson is that emergency preparedness cannot be separated from ecology. Snakebite prevention and treatment require coordination between municipal and state health systems, schools, housing developments, forest authorities, hospitals, rescuers and residents. The reported deaths and school incidents show that the point of exposure can be an urban washroom, a road near a mall, a housing complex or a suburban edge—not only a farm or forest.
Bengal’s region-specific antivenom effort has not yet demonstrated a finished solution. What it has done is make a hidden dependency visible: a national medicine supply chain relies heavily on venom collected in a small part of the country, while hospitals treat patients exposed to snakes with different regional characteristics. The developments to monitor are the startup’s progress towards its stated 2028 commercial batch, the state’s procurement process, pharmaceutical participation and evidence on whether a Bengal-specific product improves outcomes under the state’s existing treatment protocol.
