‘Pharma bro’ who hiked the price of Daraprim by 5,000% goes on defensive after year 11 students make same life-saving drug in their school laboratory

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

One of the students who made the life-saving medicine Daraprim in a school laboratory has accused Martin Shkreli of being “an attention-seeking businessman” who forgets there are “people’s lives and livelihoods at stake” in the row over predatory drug pricing.

Former hedge fund manager Shkreli last year bought Turing Pharmaceuticals and almost immediately increased the price of the drug – which has been off-patent since the 1970s – from US$13.50 to US$750 a tablet.

The drug is used to treat certain types of malaria as well as toxoplasmosis, a rare and life-threatening infection caused by the Toxoplasma parasite which particularly affects people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV.

Australian students recreate Martin Shkreli price-hike drug in school lab Read more

To show how exorbitant Shkreli’s pricing of the drug was, a group of year 11 students aged 16 and 17 from Sydney Grammar aimed to recreate the drug molecule in their school laboratory under the guidance of Dr Alice Williamson and Associate Professor Matthew Todd from the Open Source Malaria consortium.

They succeeded, making the drug for a mere $2 a pill.

The story went global overnight, with headlines such as “High schoolers punch Martin Shkreli in the face, figuratively” in Forbes and “Sydney high school students ‘show up’ Martin Shkreli” in the Washington Post.

On Twitter Shkreli dismissed what the students achieved, saying “how is that showing anyone up? Almost any drug can be made at small scale for a low price”.

Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) @nedavanovac lol how is that showing anyone up? almost any drug can be made at small scale for a low price. glad it makes u feel good tho.

One of the students, Leonard Milan, told Guardian Australia that Shkreli “saying to us that anyone could do what we could do is certainly true”.

“If you follow his overpriced method using toxic chemicals in an industrial lab it’s easy,” Leonard said. “But the fact that we were able to substitute some really toxic gasses with simple school-available chemicals and do it so cheaply demonstrates the absurdity of some of his justifications for the price.

“I think Martin is an attention-seeking businessman, the way he responds to every Twitter post made threatening him, bragging about how he can do whatever he wants reflects this.

“Whilst there are mitigating factors, namely the percentage of returns he puts back into research and development, I think he has made it a personal matter. If he were to get ‘pushed around’ by schoolkids, it’d be a bad look.

“I feel like Martin can forget that there are people’s lives and livelihoods at stake.”

Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) These kids who 'made Daraprim' reminds me of Ahmed who 'made the clock'. Dumb journalists want a feel good story.

Williamson told Guardian Australia that showing how cheap and easy the drug was to produce was part of the point of the project, as it highlighted how unfair Shkreli’s pricing of the drug was.

She refused to weigh into Shkreli’s Twitter tirade, saying only: “I like to let the work speak for itself.”

Shkreli later posted a video to Twitter boasting of his own achievements when he was younger. He also reminded Twitter users that “I have patents and stuff”.

Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) I made a short statement on the Australian students: https://t.co/cSQo3jHZoF

You can also watch recording chemistry lessons on my channel!

He later tweeted that “lab scale manufacturing” and “manufacturing costs millions to maintain”.

The students were undeterred by Shkreli’s comments, telling Guardian Australia the project had instilled a passion in them for science.

“It has made me want to do a science degree,” James Wood said.