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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: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:09PM (2 children)
It is a little early for stuff this scary but I'm not waiting 2 weeks to post
*puts on Ayn Rand Sociopath costume*
"The free market will work out all problems. Work allows people to purchase what they need to survive, so the free market is the simplest method of letting the natural process of selection work out. All the socialist programs have allowed the human population to expand without any checks or balances, but through simple supply and demand the lower tiers of humanity will eventually die off leaving us stronger and more capable than ever."
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:10PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @10:26PM
So sayeth the king!
God wills it! god wills it!!