





Zululand, South Africa
Of roughly 3,900 snake species, about thirty kill most of the people who die from snakebite. We work on antivenom for those. We also try to keep the other 3,870 alive. They're the ones people tend to kill on sight.
Species
~3,900
Most pose no threat to humans.
Venomous
~600
Only about thirty kill routinely.
Deaths a year
138K
Most never reach a hospital in time.
Producers left
0
Sub-Saharan Africa lost its last in 2024.
Source: WHO Snakebite Envenoming Fact Sheet
The Situation
The grass snake in a vegetable garden won't hurt anyone. Neither will the python in the reeds. Most snakes have no venom, or venom too weak to matter, or fangs that can't reach a human. A handful are different. Those are the ones this page is about.
The standard antivenom process injects horses with venom for months. It's rough on the horses. Snake Pharm's method doesn't use them. It doesn't use any mammals.
That wasn't the reason we chose this route. The goal was faster, cheaper antivenom. Not using horses is a side effect we're glad about, and one that matters to people who ride.
A day in Zululand. Venom extraction, handling, callouts, and what happens when a school group shows up.
Support
Snake Pharm runs on donations. Each dollar is tied to something concrete: a callout, food for the snakes, a month of lab work, a trial series.
Now
·$25K
Run the facility. Draw plasma from the snakes that eat other snakes. Process it into antivenom.
Next
·$50K
A full trial series under a vet. Tests how well the antivenom works, and whether it's safe. Regulators need to see this data.
Future
·$100K+
Submit the data for approval. Publish in peer-reviewed journals. Set up production to supply Southern Africa.
$100
Community
Ten snakebite callouts in the villages around the facility.
$250
Facility
Two weeks of food and care for every snake in the collection.
$1,000
Research
A month of venom extraction, plasma work, and lab supplies.
$10,000+
Trial Sponsor
A full animal-trial series under a vet. The step before regulators look at the data.
Having trouble? Email snakepharmsa@outlook.com to arrange your donation.
We take volunteers at the Zululand facility. You'll feed the snakes, clean enclosures, help with venom extraction, and handle animals under direct supervision. Black mambas, forest cobras, puff adders. Not a tourist gig.
If you study venom biochemistry, immunology, or snake-derived therapeutics, we can offer species access, plasma samples, and field data. We're looking for collaborations that end in peer-reviewed papers.
Open daily near Hluhluwe. The collection covers venomous and non-venomous species native to KwaZulu-Natal. Donald runs the tour. Schools, educational groups, and film crews welcome.
The Team
A small team in Zululand, South Africa, across research, medicine, herpetology, and media.
Handling venomous snakes since he was 13, and thirty-plus years on has worked with venomous species across six continents. He hosted Wild Recon and Venom Hunter for Animal Planet and Discovery, and today runs the Snake Pharm facility in Zululand, in one of Africa's highest snakebite regions.
Founder & Lead Researcher
CTO and Cofounder
Ciamac shapes how Snake Pharm looks and how its story gets told. He built the films, the brand, and the website, turning the research into something people can feel, so the animals most of us fear get a reason to be protected.
Creative Director
Amod is an emergency medicine doctor in a snakebite-prone part of Nepal, where antivenom access is a daily reality rather than a theory. He has published on the region's snakes, and he advises Snake Pharm on the clinical side, the part where the medicine meets the patient.
Partner and Medical Advisor
South Africa-based cinematographer documenting Snake Pharm's field research and facility operations. Shoots on Canon C70, embedding with the team for extended periods in Zululand. Responsible for visual documentation of the research process, from venom extraction to plasma processing, building the visual record that supports both scientific and public understanding of the work.
Cinematographer & Field Documentation
Partner, Researcher and Herpetologist
Partner, Media and Graphic Design
2026 Intern
Shop
Every order helps fund callouts, snake food, and lab work.
Vinyl Sticker
Weatherproof vinyl. Stick it on a car window, a case, a laptop, or a cooler box.
Contact
Occasional updates. Research, trials, new videos.
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