

Vaccines Could Be Emailed and Printed at Home - kenhty
http://mashable.com/2012/10/19/vaccine-email-print-at-home/

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mistercow
This is an amazing idea, but the economics really don't check out as stated.
Home printers caught on because for a brief flash of history, people needed to
bridge the gap between digital and paper based systems often enough to warrant
owning a device for that specific purpose. People buy cars because they need a
flexible transportation option that they can use every single day. Even though
these investments are expensive, the benefits outweigh(ed) the costs.
Nowadays, it's not uncommon for your situation to be that printing things is a
rare need, and on those rare occasions you can just go to a place like FedEx.
As usage becomes more occasional, the need for decentralization drops.

And that is the case with a vaccine printer. This is something you would use
maybe once or twice a year, and then it would just sit there. For a piece of
equipment that will be expensive initially and then probably require regular
maintenance, that simply doesn't make sense.

But distribution and availability of vaccines _are_ problems, and this
technology could be a solution to them. You wouldn't have the printer in your
home, though. That's crazy talk. Instead, your doctor or clinic would have the
printer. Instead of paying based on the scarcity of the vaccine and the
difficulties of shipping them around the country, you'd be paying for the
licensing of the vaccine and the maintenance of the printer (which makes way
more sense if spread across hundreds of patients). Assuming old business
models don't die too hard, this would mean higher availability and lower
costs.

~~~
revelation
This is much bigger than another dust-collecting machine in everyones home.
The "vaccine printer for everyone" is just what you write on the grant
application form to get the simpletons at the government excited.

~~~
enraged_camel
>>the simpletons at the government

Don't you think this was a little unnecessary?

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dsr_
The availability of an affordable vaccine biofactory implies general
manufacture of complex molecules.

It's science fiction on the order of fusion power plants or hard AI: there's
nothing that we know will prevent it, but our technology level is just not
there yet, nor can we make good estimates of when it will be.

I will be happy when it shows up, but I wouldn't expect it anytime soon.

~~~
revelation
I think when it does show up, no one will be happy. People are already running
around like chicken with its head cut off because someone managed to 3d-print
the lower receiver of an AR-15, fearing regulatory pressure. There are hour-
long talks on the topic of computational freedom.

Now imagine a world where you can print molecules. It's either one where
theres no freedom left or complete and total freedom.

~~~
mistercow
>I think when it does show up, no one will be happy

Lawyers will.

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ck2
If you think RIAA/MPAA is evil, wait until you try cutting out big pharma.

~~~
ef4
Especially considering that they already have a massive government enforcement
apparatus defending their turf (the FDA and friends).

~~~
derleth
Big pharma would be extremely happy if the FDA ceased to exist. It would make
them more cost-competitive with homeopaths and supplement makers, because they
would also be able to stop all of their testing and quality control.

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savrajsingh
What happens when the vaccine printer gets a virus? ;)

~~~
inportb
Not quite what you were thinking, but I think viruses might be a piece of the
puzzle:

print DNA -> PCR -> insert into vector of choice (i.e. some virus) ->
transform organism of choice (i.e. some _E. coli_ strain) -> purify drug

(this is going to be one complicated printer with lots of expensive inks)

~~~
toufka
nope - because once you have the (open-sourced) recipes it will be QUITE
cheap. Do you really think your Phusion master mix is expensive because it has
a lot of material in it? You do realize you can purify your own polymerase for
thousandths if not millionths of the cost of which you buy it from Invitrogen.

------
benologist
Rewording of [http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/bank-of-
america/archive...](http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/bank-of-
america/archive/2012/10/synthesizing-life-means-faster-cures-biologist-
says/263360)

------
Heliosmaster
and the only thing I imagine is hackers making people inject themselves bad
things instead of vaccines.

~~~
krapp
I'm wondering how long it'll take for someone to print acid on it.

