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Sydney High School Students Recreate Active Ingredient of Daraprim for $20

posted by on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the scientists-in-the-making dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The ABC news website (an Australian national news service funded by the Australian government) reports on a group of high school students from Sydney Australia who have managed to recreate the active ingredient in Daraprim for a mere $20.

Daraprim has received a lot of coverage recently after Turing Pharmaceuticals who owns the patent, initially raised the price of the drug from $13.50 to $750.00, though they have since stated that the price will be reduced.

From the article:

For $US20, a group of high school students has created 3.7 grams of an active ingredient used in the medicine Daraprim, which would sell in the United States for between $US35,000 and $US110,000.

Pyrimethamine, the active ingredient in Daraprim, treats a parasitic infection in people with weak immune systems such as pregnant women and HIV patients.

In August 2015, the price of Daraprim in the US rose from $US13.50 per tablet to $US750 when Turing Pharmaceuticals, and its controversial then-chief executive Martin Shkreli, acquired the drug's exclusive rights and hiked up the price.

Since then, the 17-year-olds from Sydney Grammar have worked in their school laboratory to create the drug cheaply in order to draw attention to its inflated price overseas, which student Milan Leonard said was "ridiculous".

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:22PM (#435600)

    https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=16766&cid=435560#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]

    TL:DR you're mistaking the daraprim situation for a new drug that hasn't already recouped its R&D. Regulation and testing is very important, even still we get some drugs approved that have nasty side effects and sometimes are recalled completely. I'm all for trying to streamline regulation, but you must be careful of trading one risk for another.

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  • (Score: 1) by Tara Li on Thursday December 01 2016, @09:40PM

    by Tara Li (6248) on Thursday December 01 2016, @09:40PM (#435687)

    The problem is that simply reproducing the drug is not sufficient to get FDA approval. A new manufacturer has to get *their* version FDA approved, as well.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Thursday December 01 2016, @10:09PM

      by Zz9zZ (1348) on Thursday December 01 2016, @10:09PM (#435701)

      Source please that states Shkreli had to pay millions and millions in R&D to get their product out the door.

      --
      ~Tilting at windmills~