
Ask HN: Is it possible to synthesize chloroquine at home, if so – how? - c89X
With the ongoing corona virus crisis, ánd mounting evidence that chloroquine (and hydrochloroquine) functions as an effective suppressant&#x2F;cure for COVID-19, I was wondering if it is possible at all to synthesize (safely!!) those compounds using widely available resources and raw materials.<p>Perhaps a list of needed raw materials, list of resources needed and a step wise recipe would be useful in the coming weeks.<p>If this is not possible to do safely, perhaps someone knowledgeable can shed light on why that is.
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PaulHoule
See this

[https://www.beilstein-
journals.org/bjoc/articles/14/45](https://www.beilstein-
journals.org/bjoc/articles/14/45)

That kind of continuous flow chemistry is a revolution, something like 3D
printing.

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lisk1
Thanks for the link, There are essential medicines that synthesis of which
should be public domain.

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PaulHoule
Wikipedia says: "Hydroxychloroquine was approved for medical use in the United
States in 1955.[1] It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential
Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health
system.[5] The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$4.65 per
month as of 2015, when used for rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.[6] In the
United States the wholesale cost of a month of treatment is about US$25 as of
2020

That's old enough that there is no patent on the drug and I am sure many
public domain synthesis paths: somebody might have a newer, better, cheaper
way to make it which is patented, but there is no legal barrier to making it.

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DanBC
Wikipedia is misquoting WHO.

> The core list presents a list of minimum medicine needs for a basic health-
> care system, listing the most efficacious, safe and cost–effective medicines
> for priority conditions. Priority conditions are selected on the basis of
> current and estimated future public health relevance, and potential for safe
> and cost-effective treatment.

WHO is saying "this medication is the safest medication available to treat
malaria". It's definitely not saying "this medication is safe".

For chloroquine they say "* For use only for the treatment of P.vivax
infection", so they're not even saying "this is the safest med for malaria",
they're saying "for this one type of malaria this is the safest med".

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navjack27
Sure dude, let's all make drugs at home... What could go wrong!?

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PaulHoule
The other day the cops in my town were chasing somebody who was suspected of
shoplifting at Wal-Mart and they found that he abandoned a small suitcase that
contained a mini meth lab.

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mindcrime
Does plain old quinine work as well? If so, could you either a. extract it
from tonic water, or b. just drink tonic water?

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acallaghan
Yeah this sounds like a really bad idea

