Aarohan – 2

Saurabh Ray, Founder-Director of Monosha Biotech and a passionate social entrepreneur, has dedicated his life to addressing one of India’s most overlooked public health crises: snakebite deaths and disabilities. Despite India being home to the largest number of anti-venom manufacturers, the country holds the grim title of the “Snakebite Death Capital of the World.”

Through years of on-ground exposure, research, and international training, Saurabh Ray identified a critical flaw—India’s anti-venoms are produced using venom from only four species of snakes, sourced from a single region, despite the country's vast diversity of venomous snakes. This results in poor efficacy of anti-venoms in many parts of the country.

To bridge this gap, in 2017 he founded Monosha Biotech (MB)—India’s first initiative focused on collecting and supplying State and Region-Specific snake venom, following WHO guidelines, to enable the development of more effective anti-venoms.

Overcoming regulatory, financial, and personal challenges—including surviving a venomous snakebite himself—Saurabh has led MB to become a pioneer in snakebite mitigation. The company has established India’s first Serpentarium and Venom Repository, received support from premier institutions (IITs, AIIMS, IISER), and is now driving the development of species-specific anti-venoms and AI-based diagnostic tools.

MB’s vision goes beyond treatment—it aims to make India self-sufficient in venom and anti-venom production, potentially supporting neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. With growing recognition, including features in Harvard Business Review and national innovation awards, Monosha Biotech is on its way to creating a "Snakebite Death-Free World."

Read the full story from the entrepreneur

Since my childhood I was fascinated by snakes with my perception about them being shaped by both science and mythology.

In 1996-2016, I was travelling extensively, especially in the rural parts of West Bengal. There I found villages where many households had sad stories to say about deaths and disabilities related to snakebites.

In 2014, while doing some snake related research on the internet, I discovered that India carries the disgraceful stigma of being the "Snakebite Death Capital of the World" and that too in spite of having the highest number of Anti-venom manufacturers in the world.

I was having the burning desire to find out the probable reasons for this issue, and contribute to the extent possible. Balancing my professional commitments, and utilising my free time for extensive research, interaction with eminent scientists and other stakeholders in the ecosystem, I could gauge the probable reasons for this snakebite crisis.

One of the major reasons I found that in India for the last many decades, the anti-venoms are being made by using venom collected from the Southern part of our vast and geographical diverse country and that too for "just four" species of snakes when there are around sixty venomous snake species. With the characteristics of the venom of the same snake species being different in different regions, the more we move away from the South the efficacy of the Anti-venom also falls sharply. This very important factor has been studied, demonstrated and acknowledged by various scientists and academicians. But there probably had been no attempt to try and implement it to make" State/ Region Specific" Anti-venom needed in our State/country.

Identifying this gap, in 2015 I contemplated Monosha Biotech (MB), inspired by the mythological Goddess of snakes MA MONOSHA and resonating with my passion of working with venomous snakes. For the first time in India, I wanted to collect and nurture venomous snakes to harvest, process, preserve and supply "State/Region Specific" venom as per the World Health Organisation (W.H.O) recommendations to facilitate the production of the much recommended/needed "State & Region Specific" Anti-venom.

I was determined to put in all my savings and resources at stake to ensure the idea takes off. But I was also looking to get the idea validated by eminent individuals/organisations. For the first time in 2015, I shared the idea/concept of MB with the esteemed Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) on their "idea to implementation" platform. Out of eight hundred plus entries, they shortlisted forty and MB was one. This gave me an impetus. In the same year, The toxicology Department, University of Calcutta, acknowledged our concept.

Snakes in India are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Hence studying and understanding the Act was imperative before approaching the pertinent Government Regulatory Authorities for the permit/approval to work, especially when I was planning something which would be a first of its kind in the country.

In 2016, I left my job to dedicate and immerse myself completely to understand the entire ecosystem to create MB. On 23 March'2017, MB was incorporated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

I also started communicating with the W.H.O to get their view. In May 2017, I got the in principle support from the W.H.O. and coincidentally in the very next month the W.H.O announced snakebite to be a NTD (Neglected Tropical Disease). Now I was even more convinced that for all these years what I had been trying to address is actually an issue.

We approached the Forest Department, West Bengal (responsible for giving the permit/license to work with snakes in the State) in November 2016 where I was told that as snakebite related deaths/disabilities fall in the ambit of the Health and Family Welfare Department (H&FWD) and hence we need to get their views and only then the Forest Department would evaluate our proposed project. Situations were uncertain and our savings was depleting fast. However I convinced myself to persevere with the vision of a "Snakebite Death Free" society.

Our focussed approach soon started yielding results. In 2018, MB was given the "Startup” certification by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and MB was announced to be one of the "top fifty Start-ups" of India on the SMARTFIFTY platform. Subsequently we received the first grant from the DST, GoI and IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP).

Keeping/Rearing snakes under controlled ambient conditions in line with the W.H.O recommendations for the production of venom for Anti-venom is something which I never did and hence I needed to hone my skills/expertise in this domain. Before MB is established and starts operating, I wanted to learn the art and science of venomous snake husbandry for venom production from some of the best places in world who had been doing this for decades.

2018-2020, I travelled to South Africa, Australia, USA, Malaysia and Vietnam to learn about Snake farm management, husbandry and venom extraction techniques. Snakes and venom being a highly regulated domain, situations were very uncertain (especially related to the time-line by which we can expect to get the necessary license/permit). Having left my job in 2016, arranging the funds and continuing became a major challenge. But with the blessings and good wishes from my well-wishers I dogged forward.

My commitment to get snakebite addressed as a major public health issue and the solution I proposed to address the same seemed to have gathered momentum. MB started receiving awards/accolades from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Startup India, Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), IKP Knowledge Park/IICB ( Indian Institute of Chemical Biology), Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). IIMCIP incubated MB as a Social enterprise. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-IICB signed a MoU with MB and became our R&D partner to help us in our journey to mitigate the burden of snakebite. I was inducted in the “ICMR- National Task Force on Snakebite Research in India”.

IN July’2019, the snakebite poison App (on Google play store) was launched by the H&FWD, WB and we were given the opportunity to be a part of the App development. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) incubated us under IBAC helping us to further refine our project. In 2019, the H&FWD, WB shared their view on MB's proposal with the Forest Dept. Finally in 2020 we were given the license to start up.

The Serpentarium & Venom lab was established in Baruipur, 24 PG (S), which was the first such facility in the country. However in 2023 due to amendments in the WPA 1972, to incorporate the necessary changes our operations came to a halt. Now with live snakes with us, the monthly cash burn was even higher and managing became difficult. In 2025 MB received the renewed license/permit in view of the new amendments.

Today with the support of the State Departments [H&FWD, Forest Dept, Animal Resources Development Department ( ARD), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Department of Science and Technology & Biotechnology(DST&BT)] and the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Govt. of India, we have been able to establish and operate a unique Serpentarium and venom repository in West Bengal. Venom from MB’s repository is now being procured by Anti-venom manufacturers for developing the "State Specific Anti-Snake Venom Serum prepared with Venom Of Snake Specimens collected from snakes in West Bengal" as per the mandate of the H&FWD, WB . Now very soon we expect to have the much awaited and the first “State Specific” Anti-venom of the country.

With active support of the H&FWD,WB, MB (also incubated at RISE-IISER), along with All India Institute of Medical Sciences( AIIMS) Kalyani, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kalyani and IIT Kharagpur have already embarked on a mission to design & develop Species- Specific Anti-venom to treat the bites of the "other" medically important snake species of East & North-East India for which there is no Anti-venom available. A Foreign Government Institution tied to the State Department of Health which is into the production of snakebite Anti-venom for more than a century has transferred the latest technology/process for the development and production of Anti-venom to MB and has also proposed to mentor/guide us in our journey to move forward along the value-chain (venom to Anti-venom). The possibilities that are emerging with the support/motivation of our State Departments (like the ARD setting up n equine facility in Kalyani, Nadia) if gets implemented would create an opportunity for setting up a Hub & Epicentre of Venom/Anti-venom research, development & production in West Bengal, benefiting the snakebite victims not just in our State but in the neighbouring States and countries (namely Bangladesh, Nepal) too where snakebite is a major issue.

Integrating our insights about the distribution pattern of the various venomous snake species and their envenomation pattern, MB along with IIT Kharagpur has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based mobile application for helping the victims and the medical fraternity in identification of the snake responsible for the bite. The patent in this regard has also been filed. This coupled with the "diagnostic kits" being developed would eventually help in migrating to the "Mono-Species/genus specific" Anti-venoms from the present day available " Polyvalent" Anti-venom in India which is a designed to work against "four" snake species at a time although the bite is from only one. This is expected to result in better treatment outcomes and help optimise resource allocation/utilisation.

The DST&BT, WB has incubated MB and has provided us with a State of Art R&D facility at the Kolkata Biotech Park (KBP), Salt Lake to help delve into venomics (study of venom) which holds immense potential for identifying, isolating bio-active molecules of pharmaceutical importance leading to the possibility of discovering life-savings drugs from venom & venom derivatives.

With all these developments, we foresee the emergence of a "Self-sufficient & Model State" in snakebite mitigation & management, bringing back the legacy when one of the best/effective Anti-venoms were produced here. With the State growing, MB too would evolve as a Global player in the Venom/Anti-venom domain.

Being a "Social Startup" , recently MB's journey got featured in the Harvard Business Review and we have been bestowed with the "Innovation Excellence Award' 25" by TELEGRAPH and Calcutta Management Association (CMA).

Now when I look back to my childhood days, from my parent’s objections for leaving my job to dedicate myself to mitigate the burden of snakebite, the regulatory hurdles, the financial crunch to present day support of the pertinent Government authorities, the funding offers, I really feel that I have travelled a long path. But only to get the whip of conscience that the journey is just beginning. What I do is a matter of life & death and this very thought keeps me motivated.

In 2021 when I suffered a snakebite, instead of being concerned about my impending death (as I was bitten by a monocled cobra for which there is no Anti-venom available in India), I dedicated my time at the ICCU to observe from the closest how a bite gets treated and what all are the gaps that need to be addressed. The experience made my resolution even stronger to move ahead.

I feel blessed to be in a profession which is also my passion and possibly that has helped me to keep moving forward. The journey has been very enriching.

I dream of a “Snakebite Death Free World”.

With the support/guidance of the important stakeholders, I am confident of achieving the dream.