The Mexican doctor who transformed venomous bite treatment.
Highlights:
- Dr. Alejandro Alagón’s fascination with venom began at his grandfather’s ranch, where a ranch worker survived a snakebite without antivenom.
- He studied medicine at UNAM and trained in venom research under Dr. Lourival Possani, eventually completing postdoctoral studies at Rockefeller University.
- Alagón focused on Mexico’s diverse venomous fauna to develop antivenoms with real impact, from scorpions to spiders and snakes.
- Despite initial skepticism, his partnership with biotech companies led to large-scale production and distribution of life-saving treatments.
- It took over a decade to gain FDA approval for his scorpion antivenom, making it the first Mexican biopharmaceutical to achieve this milestone.
It’s August 2020. The height of the pandemic. I’m locked down at home in Mexico City, while my grandparents are in their own house. Over there, there are lots of spiders and, from time to time, pale scorpions show up, especially because they live near a rocky hill. Around noon, my grandfather sent me a photo of a shiny black spider with a red hourglass-shaped mark. It was a black widow, whose bite can be lethal due to its neurotoxic venom. Minutes later, I received another photo. This time, it was the bite mark from the spider on my grandmother’s arm. Thankfully, we got the antidote in time, and she recovered. What never crossed my mind at that moment was: who was behind the development of that antidote that saved her? Almost five years later, fate led me to meet Dr. Alejandro Alagón. This is the story of a Mexican scientist…
“My grandfather had a ranch,” Alejandro recalls as he tells me about his childhood. It was deep in the jungle region of the Sierra de Puebla, surrounded by that dense, heavy, humid heat. The ranch was called “Ojo de Agua,” a cattle ranch. A peaceful place immersed in nature—but where the wildlife could be deadly.
He survived, but lost most of the muscle in his calves.
One of the ranch workers, Don Ramón, told him how he had been bitten by a Bothrops asper, a thick-bodied, brown snake known locally as nauyaca or “four noses.” Unfortunately, there was no antivenom available at the time. “He had a terrible time for two or three weeks. He survived, but lost most of the muscle in his calves,” leaving him somewhat disabled for the rest of his life. Alejandro, with the endless curiosity of a child, always begged him to tell the story, how he asked for help, the injury, the pain, the recovery.
That story may have sparked his interest in venomous creatures. In the early 1970s, he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), likely driven by the same mix of curiosity and service-mindedness that many of us share. What he didn’t know then was how far that path would take him.
My first research experience was working with sperm capacitation.
From the beginning of his career, working in university labs, he showed a clear inclination for deeply understanding biological processes. “My first research experience was working with sperm capacitation,” he explains. But those early projects didn’t fully convince him. One day, a visiting professor from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Lourival D. Possani, gave a lecture on the toxin of one of the world’s most infamous venomous snakes: the Thai cobra. The topic was technical, but for Alejandro, it made complete sense. That same curiosity he’d felt back at the ranch now pointed to a clear path, bridging research and medicine.
He wanted to focus on something that truly had an impact, especially in a country like Mexico, where venomous biodiversity includes scorpions, rattlesnakes, nauyacas, coral snakes, violin spiders, black widows, and even the Heloderma horridum (Mexican beaded lizard), one of the few venomous lizards with legs.
At the time, Possani was signing a contract with UNAM. “I want to volunteer in Dr. Possani’s lab too,” said Alagón. That’s how he began his first venom-related research project, studying the main toxin of the Brazilian scorpion. Years later, this research would allow him to develop an antivenom against Mexican scorpions.
I realized biomedical research was my calling, and that I had everything I needed to do it.
With Dr. Possani’s support, he secured a six-month research stay at Rockefeller University in Manhattan, later completing his postdoctoral studies there. He had made it to the oldest biomedical research institute in the U.S., with a legacy of 26 Nobel Prize winners. “I met four Nobel laureates,” he remembers. The university gave him access to top-tier labs, endless networking opportunities, and, most importantly, it confirmed he was exactly where he belonged. “I realized biomedical research was my calling, and that I had everything I needed to do it,” he says.
After returning from New York, Dr. Possani welcomed him with a Gila monster as a gift. And so, in 1977, Alagón developed an antivenom for this lizard, immunizing sheep at the “Ojo de Agua” ranch. A year after earning his MD, he completed his master’s degree, and after finishing his postdoc, was invited by Dr. Francisco Bolívar to join the faculty and research team of what is now the Institute of Biotechnology.
They gave me a big lab and more funds to buy equipment.
This new center, located on Avenida Universidad in Cuernavaca, aimed to turn scientific knowledge into real-world solutions—like antivenoms. “I moved here and I think it was a great decision,” Alagón says. “They gave me a big lab and more funds to buy equipment.” The move allowed him to dive deeper into his research and develop products with direct public health benefits. One study involved vampire bats, and led to a practical development for dissolving blood clots. In the early 21st century, this allowed UNAM to sign a major technology transfer agreement (still the largest, financially, in the university’s history for a homegrown scientific development).
For a researcher to start working with industry was frowned upon.
Back then, collaboration between academia and industry was viewed with suspicion. Even so, Alagón chose to cross that boundary. “For a researcher to start working with industry was frowned upon,” he recalls. “Nowadays, it’s totally normal.”
That’s how he began building bridges. It all started when the son of then-president Ernesto Zedillo received Alagón’s scorpion antivenom. After that, Zedillo ordered nationwide training for healthcare professionals on antivenom use. In just two years, deaths from scorpion stings dropped to nearly zero. Over the next six years, Alagón, in partnership with industry, developed new antivenoms. “When I started working with Bioclón and Juan López de Silanes, we said, ‘Let’s make an antivenom for coral snakes,’” he recalls. “We also developed one for black widow venom.”
And so began a 10-and-a-half-year saga, until it was finally approved in the U.S.
In 1999, with support from Leslie Boyer, director of the University of Arizona’s Viper Institute, they sought approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “And so began a 10-and-a-half-year saga, until it was finally approved in the U.S.” In 2011, the scorpion antivenom became the first Mexican biopharmaceutical to earn FDA approval. Four years later, in 2015, a second Alagón antivenom, this time for viper bites, was also approved. His research kept growing, leading to multiple antivenoms, including one for violin spider bites. “In that case, what we did was clone the toxin and now produce it in bacteria,” he explains.
What began as childhood curiosity put Mexico on the global biotechnology map, reached hospitals on other continents, and proved that science made in Mexico saves lives.
