Australian high school students recreate Shkreli’s US$750 drug for only US$2
A group of 11 high school students in Australia has successfully recreated the life-saving drug Daraprim for a mere US$2 a pill, according to scientists from the University of Sydney.
In September 2015, biotech executive Martin Shkreli became widely reviled for hiking the price of Daraprim by more than 4,000% overnight, to US$750 per pill.
The 62-year-old drug is used to treat a condition called toxoplasmosis, which can be a life-threatening disease for pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems, such as those living with HIV or AIDS.
The drug had been sold for US$18 a pill by the company that previously held the rights to the drug. But when Turing, Shkreli’s company, bought the medicine in 2015, it immediately hiked the price to US$750 a pill — a move that some patient advocates calculated would bring the annual cost of treatment for a single person to hundreds of thousands of dollars
Alice Williamson, a postdoctoral teaching fellow with the University of Sydney’s school of chemistry, said they were really shocked by Shkreli.
She works with the Open Source Malaria consortium and had teamed up with a local high school, Sydney Grammar, to support student science projects. She came up with the idea of letting the boys try to make the said medicine.
In February, the group of students began spending about an hour before and after school working to recreate the drug, with the help of their science teachers, using a recipe from a patent. They posted all of their work online periodically through Open Source Malaria, which allowed scientists to provide them with guidance and feedback.
The students spent about US$15 on the material needed to produce 3.7 g of Daraprim — about US$100,000 worth of the drug in the US market, Williamson said.
Earlier this month, one of the students’ teachers took the drug sample to the University of Sydney for it to be assessed. After examining the molecular fingerprint, and determining the crystal’s melting point, Williamson determined the students had in fact synthesized pyrimethamine, or Daraprim.
The students were actually able to produce a very pure sample of the medicine which is a challenge, Williamson said.
In Australia, 50 tablets of the drug can be purchased for US$13, Williamson said. She said she hopes the project sends a message to pharmaceutical companies — particularly those in the US — that expensive drug prices are not always justified.
If high school students can produce the same drug with minimal training, for very low cost, she says, “how can you get away with charging US$750 for an essential medicine to so many people who are already vulnerable?”
Williamson said the students would not be able to sell the drug in the US, however, because Turing still has the exclusive rights to it, creating significant legal barriers for entering the market.
But, starting a business out of the science project was not their objective, Williamson said.
Category: Features, Pharmaceuticals
