Clowning of the Day: High Schoolers Make Pharmabro’s Overpriced Drug for $2
Sometimes teenagers are the best.
When they aren't striking fear into your hearts because they know how powerful they are, they’re doing things like heckling American prince Eric Trump — still the best news item of the year.
And teens keep getting better this year as a high school science class in Sydney, Austrailia just recreated the pill Daraprim, which infamous pharmabro Martin Shkreli hiked to $750 last year, for a measly $2.
According to the Washington Post, after Alice Williamson, a postdoctoral teaching fellow at the University of Sydney, “couldn’t stop thinking” about what Shkreli did, she teamed up with Sydney Grammar to see if she could get some students to make the drug cheaper.
“In February, the group of students began spending about an hour before and after school working to recreate the drug, with the help of their science teachers, using a recipe from a patent. They posted all of their work online periodically through Open Source Malaria, which allowed scientists to provide them with guidance and feedback.
“The students spent about $15 on the material needed to produce 3.7 grams of Daraprim — about $100,000 worth of the drug in the U.S. market, Williamson said.”
Shkreli, you know that guy who spends most of his time exploiting very sick people and then smiling about it, didn’t seem too impressed though.
But you know...