The man who sparked outrage last year by hiking the price of a life-saving drug may have met his match in some Australian schoolboys.
US executive Martin Shkreli became a symbol of greed when he raised the price of a tablet of Daraprim from $13.50 (£11) to $750.
Now, Sydney school students have recreated the drug's key ingredient for just $20.
Daraprim is an anti-parasitic drug used by malaria and Aids patients.
The Sydney Grammar boys, all 17, synthesised the active ingredient, pyrimethamine, in their school science laboratory.
"It wasn't terribly hard but that's really the point, I think, because we're high school students," one boy, Charles Jameson, told the BBC.
The students produced 3.7 grams of pyrimethamine for $20. In the US, the same quantity would cost up to $110,000.
In most countries, including Australia and Britain, the drug retails for less than $1.50 per pill.
Sticking it to the man
Sticking it to the man
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
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Burning Petard
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Re: Sticking it to the man
The cost of the generic drug was never an issue. The exorbitant retail price is due to the patented and well marketed delivery system.
snailgate.
snailgate.
Re: Sticking it to the man
A pill?
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
Re: Sticking it to the man
Are you mixing this up with the Epi-pen kerfuffle?Burning Petard wrote:The cost of the generic drug was never an issue. The exorbitant retail price is due to the patented and well marketed delivery system.
snailgate.
Sticking it to the man
Hey, I agree with sg. Check out the medical schematic that shows the pills patented and well marketed delivery system.Burning Petard wrote:... The exorbitant retail price is due to the patented and well marketed delivery system.
snailgate.
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.”