Shanghai traffic police cleared the way for a car containing antivenin heading to Pudong International Airport Tuesday afternoon, in an effort to save a Gansu Province boy who had been poisoned by a snakebite, local media reported Tuesday.

Pudong traffic police helped facilitate the speedy delivery to the 11-year-old shepherd boy, Xinmin Evening News reported on its microblog.

"Because the Gansu hospital had run short of the antivenin, a friend of the boy's family came in the morning and was supposed to take the antivenin on a flight to Gansu in the afternoon," Huang Yue, a sales manager from the Shanghai Serum Biological Technology Company, told the Global Times.

An airline captain carries the antivenin, which Shanghai traffic police escorted to the airport. Photo: Courtesy of the terminal police office of Pudong International Airport

An 11-year-old boy in Gansu Province receives a dose of antivenin Tuesday night after it was transported by air from Shanghai.Photo: Courtesy of Dang Yun

Huang said his company is the only antivenin producer on the Chinese mainland. "Although antivenin is often in short supply and transporting it involves following strict procedures, local authorities gave the green light to the family, who was anxious to save the boy," Huang said.

A snake bit the boy while  he was herding sheep in the mountains over the weekend. He was admitted Monday into the No.1 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, which is known locally for treating snakebites, said Gao Yinghong, a hospital spokesperson.

"Our preliminary diagnosis showed that it was a pit viper bite," Gao told the Global Times. "The boy has a pretty swollen foot, but we've got his condition under control."