Australian students produce drugs for people with HIV

A group of Australian students involved in Daraprim production, the drug is used for people with HIV and malaria, after its price rises to a record that many patients cannot afford.

Last year, Martin Shkreli - managing director of Turing pharmaceutical company in New York - raised the price of Daraprim from $ 13.5 to $ 750 (55 times more).

Daraprim is used to treat malaria and prevent infection with Toxoplasma parasites for HIV-infected people. This price increase caused public anger.

Dr. Alice Williamson, a lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia's Medical School, also felt disgruntled by Turing's unreasonable price increase. She decided to find a solution to help patients.

"I cannot accept this. The cost of Daraprim production is actually very cheap. For a long time, it was sold at a low price , " the doctor said.

After that, she got the idea for students to produce medicine at the school's lab, because Daraprim's production process is quite simple. She thinks high school students can absolutely do it without a formal training.

The research team built Daraprim at Sydney high school.(Photo: Guardian).

This is the beginning of a group consisting of 11 Sydney high school students. The group will build Daraprim with support from the University of Sydney and international experts from Open Source Malaria, a project related to malaria prevention.

Sydney specialized school has enough financial capacity to pay for equipment, chemicals, pharmaceutical ingredients. They also have facilities for medicine production.

The members of the group are all excellent, confident and determined students, willing to give up research and research to best support malaria patients and HIV infected people.

The group is also willing to share work and achievements on the Internet. Scientists around the world can observe the production process and advising them to speed up the process.

Dr. Williamson and the University of Sydney associate professor Matther Todd are responsible for the main advisory.

Todd told the Guardian that Sydney high school students had appeared in the television program, discussing the issue of producing and selling crystal methamphetamine.

Therefore, he believes in their ability, asserting that they will conduct Daraprim production successfully and safely if guided in the right direction.

"The information on the patent for this drug helps children determine the composition of the drug. However, they have to change some things and face many difficulties and dangers because of some kind of reagent.

With the open source platform, the group posted the data during the research process, I, Alice and others could guide them in time, " said Associate Professor Todd.

After a long period of experimentation, the students said they had successfully produced Daraprim two weeks ago and received confirmation from Dr. Williamson.

Todd was also surprised by the achievement of Sydney High School students. He appreciates the ability of 11 children to study pharmaceuticals.

Daraprim will be sold in Australia for 13 AUD per blister of 50 tablets, but it is difficult to sell in the US due to legal issues.