Venom’s hidden potential fuels next wave of peptide medicines beyond GLP-1 weight-loss drugs

Steve Midway, an associate professor at LSU, argues that many powerful medicines already exist in the venoms of feared creatures, noting that venom contributed to the development of GLP-1 based weight-loss drugs.

While most people associate venoms with lethal toxicity-citing the inland taipan’s tiny dose that can kill a human-researchers are increasingly seeing them as a source of therapeutic molecules.

Over millions of years evolution has honed venom components in snakes, lizards, fish, scorpions and many other animals, creating a diverse library that drug developers are beginning to explore.

Midway suggests that this "fang-to-pharmacy" pipeline is only at its start and could expand the peptide-drug era beyond current treatments.