A Bunch of High Schoolers Recreated Martin Shkreli's Overpriced HIV Drug for $15

[j8296]

A Bunch of High Schoolers Recreated Martin Shkreli's Overpriced HIV Drug for $15
A group of 16- and 17-year-old boys was able to recreate Daraprim for just $2 a pill.

By Lauren Messman
|
Dec 1 2016, 12:40pm


SHARE

TWEET
A few high school students in Sydney, Australia, managed to synthesize Martin Shkreli's infamous $750 HIV drug for under $20, the .Washington Post reports
As part of a high school science project, 11 students at Sydney Grammar were tasked with trying to recreate Daraprim, the drug that Shkreli's company Turing owns the exclusive rights to in the US. After purchasing the drug in 2015, Turing jacked the price from $18 a pill to $750, sparking public outrage.

But apparently the life-saving drug is so inexpensive to make that a group of 16- and 17-year-old boys were able to get their hands on all the necessary materials for just $15 and, following a patented recipe, synthesized 3.7 grams of the toxoplasmosis medication. Thanks to Shkreli, that amount of the drug would cost about $100,000 in the US market. Their total cost per pill was just $2.

ADVERTISEMENT


Shrkeli, of course, wasn't too impressed. He was quick to defend himself on Twitter, telling one user, "lol how is that showing anyone up? almost any drug can be made at small scale for a low price. glad it makes u feel good tho."

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wdbg9q/a-bunch-of-high-schoolers-recreated-the-hiv-drug-martin-shkreli-overpriced-vgtrn

[wallyd]

What a total ass hole downplaying what those kids accomplished. Nothing but greed right there!

[Dakota]

Sorry, this doesn't move me. They stood on the shoulders of all the R&D to develop the drug, the clinical trials, the FDA approvals. Basically they were spotted tens of millions of dollars and THEN make the drug for $20.

If those kids want legitimate recognition make a drug that works that doesn't exist yet. Or make a half effort and build a multimillion dollar lab to synthesize your $20 drug, market it so we know it exists, hire salesman to present it to the doctors, hold seminars on the proper use and education, insure yourself for all the lawsuits you are going to be subject to, and see if you can still sell it for $20.

I can make moonshine for less money that a bottle of Vodka too. Now go become a licensed distiller and see what you can make it for.

[Dawgpound_Hank]

Sorry, this doesn't move me. They stood on the shoulders of all the R&D to develop the drug, the clinical trials, the FDA approvals. Basically they were spotted tens of millions of dollars and THEN make the drug for $20.

If those kids want legitimate recognition make a drug that works that doesn't exist yet. Or make a half effort and build a multimillion dollar lab to synthesize your $20 drug, market it so we know it exists, hire salesman to present it to the doctors, hold seminars on the proper use and education, insure yourself for all the lawsuits you are going to be subject to, and see if you can still sell it for $20.

I can make moonshine for less money that a bottle of Vodka too. Now go become a licensed distiller and see what you can make it for.

But come on man ya gotta give up some propz. I damn sure do. Medicine in this country is friggin' thru the ROOF! I know you can't really be backing the price of all medications in the US right? When I lived abroad, I could go into any pharmacy and buy meds for a fraction of the price of over here. I could buy 30 500mg amoxicillin tabs for $1.80. I get your point of all the stuff that needs to be done before it can be marketed in this country, but if it's not affordable, it's pretty much useless eh. Big pharma has always been some greedy mofo's.

[j8296]

Sorry, this doesn't move me. They stood on the shoulders of all the R&D to develop the drug, the clinical trials, the FDA approvals. Basically they were spotted tens of millions of dollars and THEN make the drug for $20.

If those kids want legitimate recognition make a drug that works that doesn't exist yet. Or make a half effort and build a multimillion dollar lab to synthesize your $20 drug, market it so we know it exists, hire salesman to present it to the doctors, hold seminars on the proper use and education, insure yourself for all the lawsuits you are going to be subject to, and see if you can still sell it for $20.

I can make moonshine for less money that a bottle of Vodka too. Now go become a licensed distiller and see what you can make it for.

I respect your viewpoint, and I can agree. Yes, making new drugs is expensive due to research, equipment, and wages. But I more or less posted this to show how ****ed the pharmaceutical companies are. There’s no way “Pharma Bro” needed to charge as much as he did to make a ROI. He didn’t even get indicted for the rapid price change. I can post more related articles showing more about the situation.

[j8296]

Turing purchased the drug which originally costed $18 per pill. The result? A new price of $750 a pill. The drug was already created at this point.