3 ms·
"...made free 100 years ago..."??? What? > Insulin from cattle and pigs was used for many years to treat diabetes and saved millions of lives, but it wasn’t pe
by dmitryminkovsky 7y ago
"...made free 100 years ago..."??? What?
> Insulin from cattle and pigs was used for many years to treat diabetes and saved millions of lives, but it wasn’t perfect, as it caused allergic reactions in many patients. The first genetically engineered, synthetic “human” insulin was produced in 1978 using E. coli bacteria to produce the insulin. Eli Lilly went on in 1982 to sell the first commercially available biosynthetic human insulin under the brand name Humulin. [0]
This process—programming bacteria to generate complex human biomolecules for our consumption(!!)—was a crowning human achievement. It did not occur 100 years ago. Insulin is not simple [1], and making it in the current pharmaceutical form that we expect, at the scale we need, is not some simple, 100 year old thing. We can't take these things for granted.
No comment on how much makers should charge for insulin.
[0] http://diabetesstopshere.org/2012/08/21/the-history-of-a-wonderful-thing-we-call-insulin/ http://diabetesstopshere.org/2012/08/21/the-history-of-a-won...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:InsulinHexamer.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:InsulinHexamer.jpg
- makomk 7y agoAs far as I know, current clinical evidence shows that modern porcine insulin isn't actually any better or worse than synthetic human insulin overall. However, it's also not any cheaper these days either - in fact, I think the NHS pays slightly more for it than human insulin. Sure, managing to program bacteria to produce complex human biomolecules was a major breakthrough, but the tech is old and refined enough that companies can churn the stuff out relatively cheaply.
- aeorgnoieang 7y ago> churn the stuff out relatively cheaply The marginal costs (per unit) are relatively cheap but the fixed costs, especially regulatory costs, are very much not cheap; which is one reason why there's so little competition.
- WhompingWindows 7y agoCan we use synthetic biology to create an open-source bacterial strain that produces insulin, then distribute the incubators and purifiers to diabetics? Something akin to 3-d printers but for home-brewed medications.
- la_barba 7y agoWe can. But its not realistic. You need purified water, media, etc to grow the strain, you need waste disposal for when you purify the harvest. And the biggest bug bear - maintaining sterility for all the pieces of equipment, and the environment to. I suppose you could design it to be a single use, closed system. But even then, the challenges are enormous. I work in pharma and producing vaccines in a clean-room is challenging enough. The FDA can shut you down for a single OOS/OOT. I would never in a million years inject myself or anyone I know with something made from a DIY kit like that.
- aperrien 7y agoI feel that this statement sets the perfect as the enemy of the good. If your alternative is to take this or die due to not being able to afford the proper medicine you need, what is your choice? What solutions do you put forward for fixing the pricing problems?
- la_barba 7y agoI'm not proposing a policy here. I'm giving my reasons why something is A Very Bad Idea. >If your alternative is to take this or die due to not being able to afford the proper medicine you need, what is your choice? I don't view it as "an alternative". Just like drinking battery acid is not "an alternative" to treating esophageal cancer because it happens to kill off cancerous cells. >What solutions do you put forward for fixing the pricing problems? I don't know of a market based solution that would do that. But you can have the government provide a single-payer system, and negotiate the prices. That's one sensible option IMHO.
- yellowapple 7y agoAs "bad" of an idea as it is, it's still better than "give up and die".
- la_barba 7y ago