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A GROUP OF Australian school children working on a shoestring budget have recreated the HIV drug whose price was controversially jacked up 5,000 percent by a former hedge fund manager.
US drug company chief Martin Shkreli became a global figure of hate after buying the rights to Daraprim and then raising the price in the United States from $13.50 a tablet to $750.
Shkreli opted to use Twitter to mock the school children, saying that he should use secondary school kids to make his medicines in future.
Making a point
Youngsters at a Sydney school decided to draw attention to the scandal and went to work creating pyrimethamine, the active ingredient for Daraprim, an anti-parasitic used to treat people with low immune systems such as those with HIV, chemotherapy patients and pregnant women.
Student James Wood said he and his friends had started off with just $20 of the drug, and in one reaction had produced thousands of dollars’ worth.
“So we really just hope this makes a point about the nature of the pharmaceutical industry,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
University of Sydney research chemist Alice Williamson helped the boys synthesise the medicine using an online platform Open Source Malaria.
The pupils “shared the outrage of the general public,” Williamson said.
“The original recipe, if you like, to make this molecule was from a patent that was referenced on Wikipedia,” she said.
Turing Pharmaceuticals continue to sell the only FDA-approved form of the drug in the US, but reportedly cut the price in half for hospitals after the outcry.
Daraprim, which figures on the World Health Organization list of essential medicines, is cheap in most countries, with 50 tablets selling in Australia for $10.
Hate figure
After it emerged that Shkreli had increased the price of the HIV drug by 5,000% overnight, the unapologetic pharma boss has become a hate figure in the US.
At a meeting before US congress officials, Shkreli infuriated members by staying silent and smirking throughout.
Since the controversy surrounding Daraprim emerged last year and the similar case of another firm hiking the price of an essential medicine in the US this year, Shkreli has been seen as symbolic of the problem of just how expensive medicines are.
Reacting to the news of the Australian school children, Shkreli tweeted some sarcastic remarks about the students’ successful recreation of the drug.
“Labor and equipment costs? Didn’t know you could get physical chemists to work for free?” Shkreli tweeted. “I should use high school kids to make my medicines!
“And why buy my equipment when I can use the lab’s for free?! And those teachers who told them what to do, they’ll work for free, right.”
Several hours after being blasted on Twitter for his comments, Shkreli was more gracious in a short YouTube clip released today.
“These Australian students are proof that the 21st century economy will solve problems of human suffering through science and technology,” he said.
“We should congratulate these students for their interest in chemistry and all be excited about what is to come in this stem-focused 21st century.”
With reporting by AFP.
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condolences to his family and friends look twice think bike. Not implying who was in the wrong but I know who came out the worse as is normally the case
@ter: I remember back in the day when i was on a motorbike in Dublin. Drivers just conciously donr see bikes. There needs to be a media flood of Think Bike. My own son is now on a Motorbike and Ive it drilled into him, mind drivers pulling out at junctions. They are looking for cars not bikes. Most just wont see you even though your lit up like an xmas tree.
@Carina Clarke: I went for a spin on the back of a friends motorbike, in the distance of only four miles two cars pulled out in front of us, only my friend is so experienced on his bike and anticipated what the drivers were about to do we would have been involved in a collision.
Another tragedy :(… Condolences to family and friends. All drivers please take care with weather warnings..
“His moped collided with a car.” …How do you know this? The wording of these collisions needs to change. It’s like the most vulnerable road user is always to blame.
Just yesterday I was, as someone who cycles a bicycle, chatting with with a guy who drives a moped about the possible ice on the roads and the perilous journey home. He said, “They just don’t see us.”
@Brendan D’Arcy: Drove a motorbike for years, best advice I got was “its not that you’ll hit someone, they’ll hit you. They don’t see you”. Best advice I ever got, even with lights on and hi viz, you could look a driver in the eyes and they would still pull out in front of you.
@Barra O Brien: best advice I got while doing the bike lessons, treat every journey as if you are invisible. Every single car at every junction can’t see you
Driving motorbikes for 40+ years. Best mindset is to assume all drivers are complete idiots and will do the most unexpected thing. Anticipation is the only thing that keeps you alive on a bike no matter how much hi-vis you wear. Condolences to this poor guys family.
@Declan White: I think cyclist and motor bikers over estimate the visibility drivers have sometimes, not that there aren’t many bad drivers, but every day I see bikes sitting in blind spots and popping out of no where.
Just because you see the car, doesn’t mean the driver can see you.
@ED: I ride a bike and drive a van. I’m as likely to be unseen in my large white high-roofed Transit as I am on a bike. People don’t look! Nobody pops out of nowhere, we’re there all along, just unseen.
I live near here and have seen plenty of accidents over the years but this is sadly the first fatal one I’ve heard of. Traffic filters into that junction from 6 different roads. One slip in concentration or an inexperienced driver is all it takes. RIP.
Motorbikes are VERY dangerous……. “According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), you are 37 times more likely to die in a motorcycle accident than a car accident – and nine times more likely to become injured while riding a motorcycle than while driving a car.”
@William Grogan: “become injured”??? That summs up the mentality. Injuries are caused.
Another one who thought is a hero on the street. Too much GTA played.
@Hubert Dworniok: the driver of car is now charged and appearing in court tomorrow morning. Moped driver was not in the wrong. If the motorcyclist in the was the wrong the car driver would not be charged with offences!
have your say