Australian students recreate Martin Shkreli price-hike drug

[rooster59]

Australian students recreate Martin Shkreli price-hike drug

 

 

The man who became a global figure of greed after hiking the price of a life-saving drug by 5000 percent in the US, may have just met his match.

 

Last year, US entrepreneur Martin Shkreli bought Turing Pharmaceuticals and almost immediately increased the price of the medicine Daraprim in the US from $13.50 to $750.

 

Now a group of school students in Australia has replicated a key-ingredient in the medicine for just $2.

 

Daraprim is an anti-parasitic drug used to treat malaria and HIV patients.

 

One of the students taking part in the experiments, Brandon Lee said: “It was a lot of trial and error, the process. We had to repeat a lot of the reactions and try different reaction conditions in order to see which materials in which things would react to make the Daraprim. But, yeah, it was a rollercoaster of emotions sometimes. I think because we are high school students we are able to relate to a larger audience, able to relate to the general public and show that even ordinary high school students like us, are able to make this drug for a pretty low price.”

 

The World Health Organization lists Darprim as an essential medicine. In most countries it retails for around $1.50.

 

In a bid to show the drug’s inflated cost in the US, the school students were guided in their experiments by researchers at Sydney university.

 

“We are ‘Open Source Malaria’ and we are trying to find new medicines for this terrible disease that kill around 2,000 people every day, many of them children. So, what we are doing is that we’re taking starting points from the big pharmaceutical companies and improving those, to be drug candidates,” Associate Professor Matthew Todd said.

 

The move by Shkreli last year sparked international outrage and was condemned by US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

 

In a series of tweets the so called ‘Bad Boy’ of big pharma initially mocked the students for their replication of the drug, but was later more gracious, congratulating them in a short YouTube clip.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-12-03

 

[Credo]

Well, that's a nice story.   Usually, it's about kids setting up a Meth lab.   

 

[Chris Lawrence]

Martin is a very low mongrel. Lower then the belly of a cockroach.

[Kerryd]

Lame story.

They used (free) school labs and (free) materials, with (free) scientific research (teachers) to recreate a known formula and then claimed it only cost them the equivalent of $2.00/pill.

 

Also, the drug had previously been marketed at $13.50 per pill which would have covered the cost of the initial R&D, testing, approvals and marketing costs (as well as the mark-up of course) because the people that developed the drug in the first place were paid scientists, working for companies that had to buy the lab equipment and materials and fund all the other expenses. It can take years of research by teams of highly qualified scientists to develop a drug. It could take 10s or 100s of millions of dollars in salaries, equipment, materials and testing before they can finally put it on the market. 

 

The <deleted> that bought the company making those pills and then jacking the price up to $750 per pill was trying to recoup the cost of his purchase by assuming that the new price would be covered by existing government/insurance deals that would be forced (more or less) to pay whatever he asked. (He had to reduce that price though due to the tidal wave of negative press he got.)

 

To put it another way, all these kids did was walk into a Toyota manufacturing plant and under the supervision of experienced engineers and using established designs, pick and choose different parts until they finally were able to recreate a working Corolla and then claim they did it cheaper than what Toyota sells the cars for.

 

Same idea as; someone hands you a free box full of IKEA parts and a blueprint for a coffee table and you make the table (with help from IKEA engineers) and then claim you built it cheaper than what IKEA charges. Lame.

 

It would be newsworthy if they'd come up with a new drug that had the same effects and were able to produce it for just $2.00/pill. 

[wombat]

Kerryd.......dont you just hate it when reality bursts the fuzzy warm bubble of a feel good story

 

[FitnessHealthTravel]

5 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Lame story.

They used (free) school labs and (free) materials, with (free) scientific research (teachers) to recreate a known formula and then claimed it only cost them the equivalent of $2.00/pill.

 

Also, the drug had previously been marketed at $13.50 per pill which would have covered the cost of the initial R&D, testing, approvals and marketing costs (as well as the mark-up of course) because the people that developed the drug in the first place were paid scientists, working for companies that had to buy the lab equipment and materials and fund all the other expenses. It can take years of research by teams of highly qualified scientists to develop a drug. It could take 10s or 100s of millions of dollars in salaries, equipment, materials and testing before they can finally put it on the market. 

 

The <deleted> that bought the company making those pills and then jacking the price up to $750 per pill was trying to recoup the cost of his purchase by assuming that the new price would be covered by existing government/insurance deals that would be forced (more or less) to pay whatever he asked. (He had to reduce that price though due to the tidal wave of negative press he got.)

 

To put it another way, all these kids did was walk into a Toyota manufacturing plant and under the supervision of experienced engineers and using established designs, pick and choose different parts until they finally were able to recreate a working Corolla and then claim they did it cheaper than what Toyota sells the cars for.

 

Same idea as; someone hands you a free box full of IKEA parts and a blueprint for a coffee table and you make the table (with help from IKEA engineers) and then claim you built it cheaper than what IKEA charges. Lame.

 

It would be newsworthy if they'd come up with a new drug that had the same effects and were able to produce it for just $2.00/pill. 

Farrrrrrkkkkkk tell us how you really feel!

[elgordo38]

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Now a group of school students in Australia has replicated a key-ingredient in the medicine for just $2.

 

Seems like $13.50 was a overcharge

[elgordo38]

37 minutes ago, FitnessHealthTravel said:

Farrrrrrkkkkkk tell us how you really feel!

I think he took a pill. 

[ronrat]

Say all you like about the free stuff they got but India or China could just as easily do it and market it for 1.00. They probably already are. 

 

Scientists and drug companies all over the world get Government and UN grants and use Government faciilties and University staff and equipment to develop drugs all the time. Very rarely do they pay it back. 

[Prbkk]

That ratbag deserves to be in prison and is more than likely to end up there...on the basis of the insider trading/fraud charges unrelated to this issue. Good riddance.

[Prbkk]

13 minutes ago, ronrat said:

Say all you like about the free stuff they got but India or China could just as easily do it and market it for 1.00. They probably already are. 

 

Scientists and drug companies all over the world get Government and UN grants and use Government faciilties and University staff and equipment to develop drugs all the time. Very rarely do they pay it back. 

 

They NEVER pay back a cent: years of taxpayer funded research but if it pays off then the researcher gets the windfall together with a few cronies. The taxpayer gets screwed again by paying a high price for the drug ( and high taxes to support govt subsidies of the end product). 

[Scott]

12 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Lame story.

They used (free) school labs and (free) materials, with (free) scientific research (teachers) to recreate a known formula and then claimed it only cost them the equivalent of $2.00/pill.

 

Also, the drug had previously been marketed at $13.50 per pill which would have covered the cost of the initial R&D, testing, approvals and marketing costs (as well as the mark-up of course) because the people that developed the drug in the first place were paid scientists, working for companies that had to buy the lab equipment and materials and fund all the other expenses. It can take years of research by teams of highly qualified scientists to develop a drug. It could take 10s or 100s of millions of dollars in salaries, equipment, materials and testing before they can finally put it on the market. 

 

The <deleted> that bought the company making those pills and then jacking the price up to $750 per pill was trying to recoup the cost of his purchase by assuming that the new price would be covered by existing government/insurance deals that would be forced (more or less) to pay whatever he asked. (He had to reduce that price though due to the tidal wave of negative press he got.)

 

To put it another way, all these kids did was walk into a Toyota manufacturing plant and under the supervision of experienced engineers and using established designs, pick and choose different parts until they finally were able to recreate a working Corolla and then claim they did it cheaper than what Toyota sells the cars for.

 

Same idea as; someone hands you a free box full of IKEA parts and a blueprint for a coffee table and you make the table (with help from IKEA engineers) and then claim you built it cheaper than what IKEA charges. Lame.

 

It would be newsworthy if they'd come up with a new drug that had the same effects and were able to produce it for just $2.00/pill. 

As stories go, I wouldn't call it lame....We've all seen some really lame stories. 

 

I think the point is here are some young folks who have taken a not-so-feel-good story, the one about a capitalist charging thousands of % markup to make money and they have shown we don't have to put up with this.   Even a bunch of kids in a not-very-sophisticated lab an do it.   Entire nations do it, like China and India, and they do it for profit.  

 

Today they have re-created a life-saving drug, perhaps in the future they will discover/invent a new one.   It's nice to see kids taking a step in the right direction, especially when there are so many wrong directions they can go.

 

That said, your point is taken.   Have a nice day.

[hoffy66]

17 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Lame story.

They used (free) school labs and (free) materials, with (free) scientific research (teachers) to recreate a known formula and then claimed it only cost them the equivalent of $2.00/pill.

 

Also, the drug had previously been marketed at $13.50 per pill which would have covered the cost of the initial R&D, testing, approvals and marketing costs (as well as the mark-up of course) because the people that developed the drug in the first place were paid scientists, working for companies that had to buy the lab equipment and materials and fund all the other expenses. It can take years of research by teams of highly qualified scientists to develop a drug. It could take 10s or 100s of millions of dollars in salaries, equipment, materials and testing before they can finally put it on the market. 

 

The <deleted> that bought the company making those pills and then jacking the price up to $750 per pill was trying to recoup the cost of his purchase by assuming that the new price would be covered by existing government/insurance deals that would be forced (more or less) to pay whatever he asked. (He had to reduce that price though due to the tidal wave of negative press he got.)

 

To put it another way, all these kids did was walk into a Toyota manufacturing plant and under the supervision of experienced engineers and using established designs, pick and choose different parts until they finally were able to recreate a working Corolla and then claim they did it cheaper than what Toyota sells the cars for.

 

Same idea as; someone hands you a free box full of IKEA parts and a blueprint for a coffee table and you make the table (with help from IKEA engineers) and then claim you built it cheaper than what IKEA charges. Lame.

 

It would be newsworthy if they'd come up with a new drug that had the same effects and were able to produce it for just $2.00/pill. 

Well you do need to take a happy pill maybe every hour, i think these kids have done a great service, most drug companies do charge much more than they should for drugs that help people live a better life, i think that these companies should be made to show more accountability as to their costs, after all  are we all not here to help our fellow man and women??

[NumbNut]

15 minutes ago, hoffy66 said:

Well you do need to take a happy pill maybe every hour, i think these kids have done a great service, most drug companies do charge much more than they should for drugs that help people live a better life, i think that these companies should be made to show more accountability as to their costs, after all  are we all not here to help our fellow man and women??

 

I'm right with you up to that last phrase... all too many of us are NOT here to help our fellow man and women. ME first, YOU wherevaaaaaa!

 

The well-being of their fellow man and woman is the LAST thing on their collective minds. The first thing on their collective minds is 'How can I make squillions out of this drug who's intellectual copyright has fallen into the public domain and not get rumbled...' or something along on those lines.