Antidotes are becoming increasingly used in police officer tests.

Other antidotes are highly specific – treating only one type of poisoning. The longer the delay, the more poison is absorbed into the body, and the less ability activated charcoal has to adsorb toxin in the gastrointestinal tract. However, for maximum effect it should be administered shortly after the poisoning has taken place. Activated charcoal is probably the best example.Īctivated charcoal can be used to reverse the effects of many different oral toxins. Of course, some antidotes are used to treat more than one type of poisoning. The word “antidote” itself derives from the Greek, antidoton, meaning “ administered as a remedy”.

Remember, the only difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose. They have their own Xa inhibitor coming along (bextrixaban), but if this protein makes it through, they'll have done the whole field a favor as well as themselves.Antidotes are substances used to reverse the effects of poisoning. Portola Therapeutics has developed a Factor Xa mimic that binds the inhibitors, and thus titrates their effects. We don't often have to consider this issue, but it's a big one in this case. Anticoagulants need a corresponding way to cancel out their effects, in case of overdose or other trouble. Blood clotting therapies have a narrow window to work in - anything effective enough to be beneficial will be effective enough to be trouble under other circumstances. The Factor Xa inhibitors are a recent entry into this area, with Bayer's Xarelto ( rivaroxaban) as the key example so far.īut there's a problem with any Xa inhibitor: there's no antidote for them.

The anticoagulant field is a huge one, with Plavix, warfarin, and plenty of others jostling for a share of a huge market (both for patients to take themselves, and for hospital use). Here's a drug-discovery problem that you don't often have to think about.

Antidote warfarin overdose