
High schoolers ‘show up’ Martin Shkreli, recreating price-hiked pill for $2 - digital55
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/01/sydney-high-school-students-show-up-martin-shkreli-recreating-price-hiked-pill-for-2/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.e06bbb7baf1e
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dekhn
synthesizing a molecule in a lab is very different from producing a large
scale production-grade pharmaceutical and delivering it to patients. The
manufacturing cost is only part of it.

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gus_massa
Another detail: Is the pill pure enough to be consumed safely by a human? (Or
at least by a rat.)

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dekhn
I assume the students didn't make a pill so much as produce some substance in
a vial. It looks like the synthesis of pyrimethamine (the chemical in
question) isn't exactly simple although it's definitely not beyond the
capabilities of intelligent, motivated high schoolers with a great chemistry
teacher.

in the article they said they had it analyzed, and it was pretty pure. That's
not quantitative enough to say for sure. With some sleuthing you should be
able to find the information for Daraprim and its purity. But there is a big
difference from making some small amount of pretty pure substance in a lab,
and the process of making production-grade pharmaceuticals at scale.

