US executive Martin Shkreli became a symbol of greed when he raised the price of a tablet of Daraprim from $13.50 (£11) to $750.
Now, Sydney school students have recreated the drug’s key ingredient for just $20.
Daraprim is an anti-parasitic drug used by malaria and Aids patients.
Martin Shkreli: ‘The most hated man in America’
The Sydney Grammar boys, all 17, synthesised the active ingredient, pyrimethamine, in their school science laboratory.
“It wasn’t terribly hard but that’s really the point, I think, because we’re high school students,” one boy, Charles Jameson, told the BBC.
The students produced 3.7 grams of pyrimethamine for $20. In the US, the same quantity would cost up to $110,000.
I like how the students’ description of their synthesizing the ingredient to this important, life-saving medication is basically:
Martin Shkreli: Australian boys recreate life-saving drug – BBC News
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