Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
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: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:27PM (1 child)
They came 100 in a single bag, once I opened that bag none of the needles in it was sterile anymore. That's why I couldn't find anyone to give them to.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 19 2018, @05:36PM
As I recall, individual syringes are sterile until the cap over the needle is removed. I also seem to remember much smaller bags.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, my daughter's insulin pump had problems. So the solution was to go back to the old fashioned treatment of a basal insulin along with a bolus when needed. But we didn't have syringes on hand. So I rush to walgreens in the night, in jogging shorts, hair disheveled, to buy only one bag of needles. Not the entire box of multiple bags. (Entire box was 100 syringes.) Of course, this seems suspicious in the middle of the night.
But I knew all the right answers. It is for insulin. Yes, I can specify what kinds exactly. What patient, who was a minor child. All on file in their records. So they sold it to me over the counter.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.