Students in Australia have recreated the active ingredient in a drug which was price-gouged by Martin Shkreli (pictured).

 

Shkreli is the "winner" who bought the rights to Daraprim. The drug is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can affect AIDS and cancer patients. When Shkreli got the rights to the drug, he upped the price from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. (It usually takes 100 pills to treat the infection.)

 

The students were able to make the active ingredient for Daraprim in the school lab, and they did so at a cost of $1.50 a pill. They did so without relying on the patented method for creating the drug.

 

Class lead Dr Allice Williamson explained that the exercise helped illustrate how drug companies are making massive, and perhaps even unjustifiably large, profits off the backs of unhealthy individuals.

 

"I thought if we could show that students could make it in the lab with no real training, we could really show how ridiculous this price hike was and that there was no way it could be justified," Williams said.

 

It's not all good news; although a generic version of Daraprim could be legally sold, permission would be needed from Shkreli's company to run comparison trials. That is very unlikely.

 

Shkreli has already responded to the news. “We should congratulate these students for their interest in chemistry and I’ll be excited for what is to come in this STEM-focused 21st century," he said. “And never, ever compare your cook game to mine. Highest yield, best purity, most scale. I have the synthesis game on lock.”

 

Once a douche ...