These Teens Created The 'Pharma-Bro' Drug For Only $20 In A High School Lab
By
Editorial Staff in
Amazing
On 1st December 2016
It's no secret that pharmaceutical companies are screwing people over left and right. "Pharma-douche" Martin Shkreli is just a recent example in a long line of businessmen shamelessly capitalizing on life-saving medication by charging exorbitant amounts of money for them.
And although the healthcare issue in the US is a complicated one, at the end of the day, it's hard to deny that there are special interest groups who definitely want to keep the price of drugs are high as possible, ethical issues be damned.
#1 When science, ingenuity, with a desire to do something right all come together, amazing things can happen.
#2 Students who managed to create 3.7 grams of Pyrimethamine, the active ingredient in Daraprim, which could sell between $35K and $110K in the US.
The price of Daraprim went from $13.50 a pill to $750 when former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the much-loathed Shkreli, hiked up the price. But a group of 17-year-olds decided to respond to all of the hullabaloo by hitting drug manufacturers where it hurt most: their profits.
#3 Milan Leonard said the price hike of Daraprim was "ridiculous."
"It makes sense that if you're putting billions of dollars into research for a drug like this, you should be able to reap some profit, but to do something like this it's just not just."
#4 Once Milan and his team found they were able to successfully recreate the drug in a simple high school laboratory, they were "ecstatic."
It was ecstatic, it was bliss, it was euphoric. After all of this time spent working and chemistry being such a high and low, after all the lows, after all the downs, being able to make this drug, it was pure bliss."
