Mentored by Dr. Matthew Lewin

It is thought that 75% of mortality due to snakebite occurs outside the hospital setting, making the temporal gap between bite and antivenom administration a major therapeutic challenge. Small molecule therapeutics (SMTs) have been proposed for field treatment of snakebite to address this therapeutic gap, but have never been tested in a clinical trial. To inform future development of SMTs, this qualitative study explores barriers and facilitators and gives recommendations to conducting a clinical trial of Varespladib, a proposed SMT for snakebite treatment, in Nepal.