Some Teenagers Recreated Martin Shkreli’s Crazy-Expensive Drug For $20

When Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, hiked up the price of a life-saving medication, one group of high school students saw an opportunity to do good.

Eight teenagers from Sydney Grammar School in Australia have collaborated with scientists from the University of Sydney to reproduce the active ingredient in Daraprim, a drug whose price tag swelled from $13.50 to $750 last year.

How much did it cost them? A mere $20.

Working in their chemistry lab, the students synthesized 3.7 grams of pyrimethamine, the active ingredient in Daraprim. That yield is worth about $110,000 in the U.S., according to the BBC.

Daraprim is an anti-parasitic medication used to treat malaria and other conditions involving compromised immune systems, such as AIDS. It is listed on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.