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Open Insulin, 'DIY bio' and the future of pharma
The development, manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States is a complex landscape involving intellectual property and strict federal regulations. But according to Colorado State University scientists, the status quo of the U.S. pharmaceutical market may soon be turned on its head. That's due in part to a growing community of do-it-yourself "biohackers" who are disrupting business-as-usual for pharmaceutical discovery, development and distribution. A Sept. 13 perspective piece in Trends in Biotechnology [DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.07.009] [DX] frames these emerging issues, and predicts how the pharmaceutical industry, and the U.S. regulatory environment, will need to change in response.
[...] The authors use the California-based Open Insulin Project as a case study of how the DIY bio movement might shape the future of medicine. Founded in 2015, the project's creators are trying to increase competition in the insulin market by developing and releasing an open-source protocol for manufacturing off-patent insulin.
Why does the Open Insulin Project exist in the first place? Insulin is 100 years old, but it remains prohibitively expensive for many patients, with some uninsured patients paying up to $400 a month for this life-saving medicine. People are angry, and in some cases, people are dying, from lack of access to affordable insulin.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:17PM (8 children)
I'd much rather see my tax money pay for someones insulin than bomb some foreign country.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:19PM (4 children)
Fear not, some of your tax dollars are diverted from the military that insures this country continues to exist and into programs that give free insulin to illegal immigrants.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:52PM (2 children)
You seem to think that would be worse than spending money on bombs?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 18 2018, @08:49PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @01:43AM
Why is there no Bazinga!! mod?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:56PM
You prok bellied fool, no one is saying zero military. I suspect you are trolling so ill just exit this thread after plopping my sweaty junk on your head.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:44PM (1 child)
It's hard to take the high road when you freeload off of countries that are on the hook to defend you. It's like the young man from an independently wealthy family working for a charity for free because he couldn't stand to sully himself by taking money for that work. If you owned up to your responsibilities you'd find more of those tax dollars would have to be spent in non-sanctimonious ways.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:52PM
God damn you military die-hards are nuts. Do we need a massive military to prop up our Empire? Yes. Do we need to spend quite so much on it? NONONONO and NO! The cost/benefit algorithm has been superseded in your brain by a piece of tri-colored cloth and I would guess a bit of personal investment in the pork machine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @08:43PM
It's simple evolution in action. Unless the person needing insulin is sterilized, we're breeding sickly people who will not do well when we go all Venezuela.
Bombing gets rid of our competition. It's how we win.