Anarchy and open source medicine

[FBeyer]

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... reddit.com

Figure out how to DIY synthesize life-saving drugs. Give away the instructions for free so the FDA don't come after you.

[prognastat]

I definitely think it's very interesting, but also a good way for people to either accidentally receive too little or too much of their medication both of which could have disastrous results. Same for unwanted reactions/tainting occurring in the process.

[tonyedgecombe]

They need a commercial vetting service, a lab you can send your $20 knock off of a $10,000 drug to to guarantee it is chemically identical to the original.

[ThisDinosaur]

This group has been hyping themselves for at least three years and I dont see that they've accomplished much.
https://fourthievesvinegar.org/download

Presumably this is because it's almost always way less cost effective to manufacture small doses of a drug than it is to mass produce them. Otherwise, people in need of overly expensive or orphan drugs would hire a chemist to circumvent greedy Big Pharma.

OTOH, it's worth noting that the EpiPen fiasco was not over the drug (which was always available and cheap) , but over a spring-loaded syringe. This problem was easily surmountable by anyone who knows a diabetic with experience drawing up and injecting their own medication.

There are some board members who have experience with high healthcare costs. I hope some of them chime in. Have you looked into the feasibility of DIY medicine? Care to detail your experience?

[prognastat]

I'd say it depends on what the markup to cover research+profit on a drug would be. If the markup and profit are very high on a drug(more common in drugs for illnesses that affect a very small portion of the population) then DIY or custom manufacture might be worth it, however the amount of people helped by this would be much lower than a drug for an illness that affects a large portion of the population, but these would be harder to beat the benefits of mass production on since the margins are lower.

So you can either help very few people a lot or a lot of people very little(and chances are if the price isn't significantly lower people aren't going to risk DIY for it anyway).

[Riggerjack]

I thought it was awesome. And now my wife has one more reason to get a 3d printer.

[Riggerjack]

@ fbeyer

You have posted a lot of very high quality material lately. Thanks for that. I read it all, but tend to post only when I disagree with something. So while I may not write much, you have me thinking a lot.