The “Anti-Botox” Breakthrough: How a Rural Doctor is Using Tetanus to Help the World Breathe

In the sweltering heat of a rural hospital in Northern India, a young medical student named Tony Sasse witnessed something most Western doctors only read about in textbooks: the terrifying, raw power of tetanus. He watched patients struggle with “lockjaw,” their muscles frozen in a state of hyper-active, agonising contraction.

Most saw a deadly disease. Sasse, now a seasoned pulmonologist in rural Australia and Managing Director of Snoretox, saw a biological engine that was simply running too fast.

“I was very impressed by this molecule and by what it could do,” Dr. Sasse recalls. “The thought came to me: what if we give a tiny dose—not enough to make muscles go nuts, but just enough to tone them up a smidgen?”

To understand Snoretox, one must understand its famous cousin: Botox. While Botox (botulinum toxin) acts as a “mute button” for nerves, relaxing muscles to smooth wrinkles or stop spasms, the Snoretox platform uses a modified tetanus toxin to do the exact opposite. It acts as a “volume knob,” turning up the nerve impulses to strengthen weak or sagging muscle tissue.

The challenge was the human immune system. Because most of us are vaccinated against tetanus, our antibodies—which Sasse calls “biological wheel clamps”—neutralise the toxin instantly.

The breakthrough, developed alongside RMIT University, involves a “decoy” molecule. By injecting a high concentration of a lookalike molecule into the target area, the team mops up local antibodies, allowing a precision-engineered dose of the active toxin to slip through and restore muscle tone.

The company’s first commercial target isn’t the local pharmacy, but the dog park. Specifically, “brachycephalic” breeds like pugs and French bulldogs, whose adorable flat faces hide a grim reality: their airways are often so weak they collapse, leaving them perpetually gasping for air.

The results have been viral. A pug named “Pugtato,” previously deemed unadoptable due to severe respiratory distress, became a Page Three celebrity in Melbourne after a tiny dose of Snoretox into the floor of his mouth allowed him to breathe freely for the first time in years.

“The light bulb went on,” says Sasse. “If you make the muscle tone in the floor of the mouth better, it holds the throat open. We serendipitously came across a way to make bulldogs’ lives better.”

While the veterinary market is a multi-million dollar entry point, the human applications represent a massive “blind spot” in current medical portfolios. Snoretox is targeting a suite of conditions where muscle weakness is the primary antagonist:

“Everybody wants to invest in cancer or cholesterol,” Sasse notes with a wry smile. “But fixing muscle tone wasn’t on anyone’s radar. We are filling a niche that has no real targeted drug solution.”

Snoretox isn’t just a “pet project.” The company has secured $1 million from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and won the 2025 Innovation Award at the Animal Health Summit in Kansas City—selected unanimously by a panel of global industry judges.

The company currently holds FDA CVM Breakthrough Status, a rare designation that fast-tracks the regulatory pathway. For investors, the “economic logic” is clear: Snoretox is moving toward a veterinary market launch within three years, with human clinical trials following closely behind.

As the company prepares to present at the Emergence 2026 conference in Sydney, Sasse is looking for “mature, patient capital” that understands the biotech lifecycle but recognises the rarity of a platform that works across species.

“We are a company that will ultimately have both a human impact and significant commercial returns,” Sasse says. In a world of biotech “moonshots,” Snoretox is grounded in a simple, elegant truth: sometimes, all you need is a little more tone.

The Investor Takeaway: With unanimous industry validation and government backing, Snoretox is currently in the “hot zone”—valued as a pre-clinical biotech but carrying the de-risked data of successful canine applications. As they approach human Phase 1 trials, the opportunity for a valuation re-rate is significant.