A black day.

Perhaps some convulsion in the pharmaceutical industry will bring another supplier forward. We've got enough of a supply to limp along for the next year, that's it.

Doannah: Have you ever seen a coral snake? I have heard about them all my life, seen pics, know the chant ['red on yellow kill a fellow'], but frankly, I'm not 100% convinced they really, actuually, EXIST....

Yeah, they're the Flight 93 of the snake world.

There are lots of different species of coral snakes in the western hemisphere - I nearly put my hand on one in Panama when I sat down on a lawn. Despite being so brightly colored, this snake was literally woven into what looked like St. Augustine grass. It was impossible to see until it started moving at which point I decided to move elsewhere.

The original point of this comment is that there is a bigger demand for the antivenom than just that which comes from this country. Though the venom will vary to some degree from species to species, it will still be a neurotoxin and would probably use very similar processing from type to type. So I expect we'll end up seeing this out-sourced to some of the Latin American manufacturers.

Two other points - the snakes do have small, fixed fangs and the color bands vary on different species. They also probably taste like chicken but my knowledge of them stops short of verifying that.

When we moved into our new house (built in the 40's)
I was quite happy with it's location...in an old part of Florida, what I call 'antique Florida.'

After cleaning up a little in the backyard, I ran across this fellow...he could hardly move, and when he did..he looked spastic.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e89/csason/snake/christmas2005101.jpg

this is him(or her I suppose) on top of my car.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e89/csason/snake/christmas2005100.jpg

I fooled around with it for a while, not really convinced Gmac, that it was even a coral.

After I killed it at my neighbor's insistence, I went and googled coral snakes, and was surprised to learn that MOST people are bitten after fooling around with the damn things for a while...and that normal defense is to act spastic. It was the second (probably first) one I have ever seen in person, wild..in my life.

I took a pic of this badboy(or girl) around the same time, and oddly enough..it isnt an alligator
snapper at all. I have been corrected by a COUPLE
of real herpetologists on Youtube about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-s3JA2LWx4

so I guess we can stop believing that Pharmaceutical companies really have human suffering at the heart of their mission statements.

Consonant Dude: They don't have fangs in the normal sense that people think of when you're talking about poisonous snakes. The little fangs (as you mention) are not retractable, and sinking them in doesn't do much, as statistics show. It's with their gnawing, jagged teeth that they inject the venom. It takes time, and that's why it's usually drunks they kill, as it would take someone passed out on the ground to not know something's gnawing on him. Or an idiot like the lady in this story.

I concur and would not recommend using one as a bottle opener, ever.

I'm surprised INDC Braggadocio hasn't popped in here to tell us about the time when the Coral faction of the Sinister Snake Syndicate plotted to poison his city's water supply, and he saved the day.