3 ms·
I posted a comment once bemoaning the high costs of one of my SO's medications. The chemical compound in question is used by horse veterinarians as a supplement
by Balgair 6y ago
I posted a comment once bemoaning the high costs of one of my SO's medications. The chemical compound in question is used by horse veterinarians as a supplement for their joints; think something like how Vitamin-D is put into milk. Due to medical/legal issues, the only source for this compound in the US is via a MD or a VD (or so we thought). The cost is ~$2/pill, taken thrice daily. Depending on the insurance plan, it can go up to ~$10/pill. This cost had been keeping our family from changing jobs and careers as the medical costs had to be factored in during salary negotiations. Like many Americans, we were enslaved to our insurance plan.
A extraordinarily kind HNer pointed me towards how to search for bulk manufactured chemicals.
A few weeks later we got 1 cubic meter of the stuff. The cubic meter being the smallest volume the company would send. It will last my SO's entire lifetime and then a few more.
That HNer gave us the gift of freedom.
- tebbers 6y agoAmazing story, how much did you have to pay for the cubic meter and how did you take delivery?!
- Itsdijital 6y agoWell whats the compound? Perhaps someone else reading it could benefit from this too.
- arboles 6y agoCan you point us to the post that pointed you towards how to search for bulk manufactured chemicals?
- spsphulse 6y ago^This. I would love to know this as well.
- justhw 6y agoIt might be this thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22398381 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22398381
- PascLeRasc 6y agoThis was it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20275178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20275178
- ampdepolymerase 6y agoBeware using non-pharmaceutical grade ingredients. Lab grade is not the same as pharmaceutical grade. If things go wrong then the liability is on you. It may also have implications for your health insurance. I have commented on this before, caveat emptor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26040423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26040423
- refurb 6y agoAs a former chemist this. Pharmaceuticals are developed for human consumptions with defined limits for things like heavy metals, residual solvents, etc. Bulk manufactured chemicals are not. You’ll often by see them sold at 98% purity and the remaining 2% can be whatever. Even if they are 99.9% pure, the remaining 0.1% can be metals used in the manufacturing process, carcinogens or toxic solvents. Kind of like the different between ethanol, USP (pharmaceutical grade ethanol) versus ethanol, 99%. If no one is drinking the ethanol they don’t care if it contains traces of benzene, methanol, etc. Beware.