National Antivenom and Vaccine Production Center

The National Antivenom and Vaccine Production Center, the first and only one producer of antivenom for snakebites and scorpion stings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region and it is located at the National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh.

The center’s being a producer of very potent antivenoms against the venoms of local snakes and scorpions has its ultra modern plant for plasma processing & ampoule filling. The NAVPC ultra modern plant was built in accordance with the European standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and has the capacity to supply all the antivenom requirement of the kingdom and the Gulf States. It also has the potential of supplying neighboring countries with specialized antivenoms if the demand arises.

In addition to the main plant the center has several other laboratories for research and development, quality control, venom treatment and fractionation. It also has the biggest serpentarium in the region for keeping stock of big numbers of snakes and scorpions collected from various regions of the kingdom.

The NAVPC uses horses for immunization because it produces its antivenom as equine sera. The horse stable is located 3 kilometers away from the production area and it contains more than 160 horses.

Antivenom against all saudi venomous snakes and all of the highly dangerous saudi scorpions are prepared from immune sera raised mainly in horses.