Snakebite affects 2-5+ million people annually, causing >100,000 deaths, and disabling >1 million. WHO classifies snakebite as a Neglected Tropical Disease, mobilising resources to tackle this problem. Most literature about methods of tackling snakebite have focussed on providing antivenom and education of health staff and/or communities, but not the impact of politics as a determinant of success in reducing snakebite burden. We discuss the impacts of politics at several levels during the nearly 8 years of the Myanmar Snakebite Project. Changing international attitudes to the Myanmar government initially favoured applications for foreign aid funding, then, as the government fell out of favour, greatly impeded efforts to secure support. National political imperatives in Myanmar initially provided strong support for foreign assistance to improve snakebite outcomes, particularly for improving both quantity and quality of antivenom production,. However, increasing internal tensions were manifested as reduced government support for maintaining existing resources, quite apart from supporting innovations to improve antivenom production. Conversely, at the health system level, there was initially some reluctance to support foreign assistance leading to change, but attitudes improved during our project, resulting in a constructive relationship with key health managers that encouraged local support for implementing changes in practice that would lead to improved patient outcomes. Internal political tensions in Myanmar culminated in the 2021 military coup which effectively curtailed efforts to implement improvements in the medical management and provision of antivenom for snakebite patients, greatly magnified by depletion in numbers of public health system workers through strikes, resignations and government (military) actions. This has seriously reduced or extinguished foreign-aid-funded health care and research programmes focussed on snakebite, to the certain detriment of snakebite victims. Throughout, politics at all levels proved to be a crucial but unpredictable factor determining the success of the Myanmar Snakebite Project.