A former truck mechanic who has allowed himself to be bitten by deadly snakes more than 200 times is helping scientists produce an ‘unparalleled anti-venom’.
Tim Friede, 57, has also been injected with the venom of mambas, cobras and taipans more than 700 times, raising hopes researchers can develop a universal treatment.
Venomous snakes kill about 140,000 a year, and conventional anti-venoms are slow to make and are typically only effective against a single species.
But Mr Friede’s blood teems with antibodies from a wide range of snakes after more than 25 years of training his immune system against accidental bites.
Mr Friede, from Wisconsin in the US, started extracting venom from snakes in 1999, before diluting it and injecting tiny doses.
It has not been without its setbacks – in 2001 he ended up in a four-day coma after being bitten by cobras twice in quick succession.
Jacob Glanville, the CEO of US biotech company Centivax, contacted Mr Friede after seeing a video of him on YouTube.
Mr Glanville, who described Mr Friede as the inventor of the ‘Achilles Heel of all snakes’, said: ‘I thought if anybody had the secrets of universal anti-venom pumping through their veins, it would be this guy.’
Tests showed Mr Friede’s blood is resistant to venom even from snakes he has not been bitten by.
Scientists found that by combining his blood with drugs, then testing it against the venoms of 19 species, Mr Friede was fully protected against 13 and the venom of the rest was partially neutralised.
There are around 650 species of snake and just 30 antibody products.
But a universal antidote could be available in as little as five years, experts say.