Comment by HybridCurve | Hacker News Reader

Comment by HybridCurve | Hacker News Reader

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While I can appreciate some of the intent to make certain healthcare more accessible, it is never a good idea to have anyone inexperienced attempt to perform some of the reactions required to synthesize medicines. This should always be done by experienced individuals with quality reagents and the proper lab equipment. While it might be easy to substitute a mason jar for a proper glass reaction vessel it is not so simple to find a substitute for a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer in the back of your pantry.

IMO, The test equipment required to analyze the results of the reactions is generally most cost prohibitive aspect of this type of 'research'. And this is where I have a problem with these guys: I don't see any plans available for building any of that. Building many of these devices is not out of reach for a skilled individual, and it makes more sense to me that this equipment should more readily accessible than a glorified Keurig machine for drugs. This kind of arrogance and lack of respect for the discipline required in organic chemistry is going to result is someone getting hurt.

My relative is a chemistry professor who used to manage a mass spectrometry lab. Pharmaceutical companies sent them samples when something went wrong. They have their own spectrometers but interpreting wrong results is not always easy.

Sometimes it included some cool detective work. In one case they were able to track the contamination down to post packaging. A component of the sticker glue diffused through the wall of the plastic bottle and contaminated the stuff contained therein.

So except for an excuse to tell this story my point is that maybe you can outsource the analysis. I admit I haven't checked if the labs accept samples from random people. In theory that should be possible.

>. This should always be done by experienced individuals with quality reagents and the proper lab equipment.

Naaa. Same with prescription meds, open it up! Isn't that how we found a drug for a Parkinson's mouse model? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP]

Big brother's job is not to control and ban certain behavior. California thinks this way and aggressively enumerates every possible bad thing they can conceive of and making it illegal. As if slipping on a banana peel were illegal. It's borderline insane, like why not make getting sick illegal or being poor illegal, why not make changing lanes without a turn signal illegal. Ethically as long as the instructions say, "do this wrong and you'll die, it's a garage door spring" people will know. Or "take this medicine, but if you don't check your liver/kidney/clotting you may well die". In big bright red letters.

Don't make it impossible to do freely. Just make it impossible to do without reading and agreeing to the fact that you understand the big red letters. Understand the risks. Medicine is all about patient autonomy and this is the opposite.

> why not make changing lanes without a turn signal illegal.

Funny you should say that, the California Vehicle Code (CVC) Section 22108 requires drivers to signal for at least 100 feet before making a lane change or turn. The fine is $240.

https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/vehicle-code/22108/

I don't understand why they even bother reinventing the wheel. Biotech and lab techs aren't being paid FAANG salaries. They are hardly more expensive than minimum wage employees. Just hire some and get them to do the actual experiments.

Many have their hands tied. In the biopharma industry, there are strict NDAs and well enforced noncompetes that make it hard to move throughout the industry and sometimes even talk about the work.

I work today with someone who interned with Gilead. According to him, his NDA lasts until 2099 and covers "Anything and everything said, heard, seen, imagined or done" while under their employ that hasn't been made 100% public. His resume has just one line entry: "Intern, lab tech. Details NDA."

Aren't such NDAs illegal in countries like the Netherlands (e.g EU)? I wonder how they deal with that.

I work for a competitor for Gilead and we certainly don't apply these sorts of constraints on our interns. I just worked on a recommendation letter that describes his work in detail (while not containing anything truly proprietary).

Get rid of patent law and government regulations and then no one will need to roll their own medicine, because everything will be very inexpensive and high quality.

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