Xref: utzoo sci.bio:2351 soc.motss:20523
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aecom!werner
From: werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.motss
Subject: Re: Why AZT is so expensive
Message-ID: <2480@aecom.yu.edu>
Date: 23 Sep 89 23:04:33 GMT
Followup-To: sci.bio
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 26

> Could someone present an overview of the production process for AZT?
> I seem to recall seeing a description somewhere.  I believe it starts
> with some strange raw material, codfish semen or something, and has many
> steps.  Is it something that could be done on a bootleg basis?

	The starting material for AZT is DNA.  The cheapest way to get
DNA in large quantities of DNA is fish sperm, usually salmon or herring.
You hydrolyze the DNA, separating the 4 nucleotide-5'-monophosphates that
result, then you collect the Thymidine-5'-monophosphate (TMP), substitute
the 3'OH for a 3' N3 (azido) group, and dephosphorylate it.
	From a rough calculation, in this very group, several years ago I
computed that the cost to make it on a small scale, comes very close to
the price that they are selling it for (i.e., it would be very hard to
make it on a small scale for much less than $10/gram, and it would
probably cost closer to $20.  Bouroughs-Welcome now sells it for $12/gram.
My comment is that they are much better organic chemists than I initially
gave them credit for.
	However, what really makes AZT seem so expensive is the fact that
the yearly dosage approaches 3000 pills.  3000 times any per dose cost is
going to add up to a lot of money.

-- 
	        Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)
	     werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
"Comedy, like Medicine, was never meant to be practiced by the general public."