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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: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:25PM (6 children)
I'm not the AC above, but my guess is he was referring to the obesity rate in the US. His insulin is free because his own pancreas produces it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:52PM (4 children)
Pancreas - the enemy of diabetes research and the profi... no, scratch that - and the jobs.
Big Pharma should lobby for regulation imposing the surgical removal of the pancreas immediately after birth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:22PM (1 child)
Obesity is only a risk factor.
Once my glucose was controlled (type 2), my weight rapidly plummeted (down 85 lbs so far, and still dropping) with no change of diet nor lifestyle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:47PM
Just make sure you're confident it is diabetes. A co-worker of mine had his blood sugar go crazy and he was on various diabetes-related medications. It turned out that he had pancreatic cancer and the cancer was squeezing his pancreas causing his blood sugar to go all over the place.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:56PM
Your ISP and your mobile phone provider will be fighting over those vital organs with marketable value. The resale market in used organs will still harm the profits of Big Pharma.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday September 19 2018, @12:53AM
Monty Python [youtube.com] didn't intend the movie to be a documentary or user manual..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @02:13PM
Isn't obesity only a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes (many of which don't use insulin)? Most/all Type 1 diabetics require insulin and I don't believe obesity is a related factor.