#open source malaria

Students make $750 drug cheaply with Open Source Malaria team

Sydney Grammar School students, under the supervision of the University of Sydney and global members of the Open Source Malaria consortium, have reproduced an essential medicine in their high school laboratories. The drug, Daraprim, had been the subject of controversy when the price was hiked from US$13.50 to US$750 a dose last year.

Daraprim—originally used as an antimalarial after its synthesis by Nobel Prize winner Gertrude Elion—is now more widely used as an anti-parasitic treatment for toxoplasmosis, which can be a dangerous disease for pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems, such as those living with HIV or AIDS.

Daraprim is listed by the World Health Organization as an essential medicine.

In September 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the market rights to Daraprim and raised the price of a dose more than 5000 percent overnight. CEO at the time, Martin Shkreli, stuck by the price, despite criticism.

To highlight the inequity of the monopoly, high school students in Sydney have been working with the Open Source Malaria consortium to make Daraprim in the laboratory using inexpensive starting materials, as part of the Breaking good – Open Source Malaria Schools and Undergraduate Program.

Scientists anywhere in the world were able to view all the data generated and mentor the students to accelerate the science under the coordination from the University of Sydney’s Dr Alice Williamson and Associate Professor Matthew Todd.

Students make $750 drug cheaply with Open Source Malaria team

Sydney Grammar School students, under the supervision of the University of Sydney and global members of the Open Source Malaria consortium, have reproduced an essential medicine in their high school laboratories. The drug, Daraprim, had been the subject of controversy when the price was hiked from US$13.50 to US$750 a dose last year.

Daraprim—originally used as an antimalarial after its synthesis by Nobel Prize winner Gertrude Elion—is now more widely used as an anti-parasitic treatment for toxoplasmosis, which can be a dangerous disease for pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems, such as those living with HIV or AIDS.

Daraprim is listed by the World Health Organization as an essential medicine.

In September 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the market rights to Daraprim and raised the price of a dose more than 5000 percent overnight. CEO at the time, Martin Shkreli, stuck by the price, despite criticism.