CSIR makes production of expensive pain medication cheaper with unique high-tech process

[Hanno Labuschagne]

CSIR makes production of expensive pain medication cheaper with unique high-tech process

South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) successfully used a new technology to more cost-effectively produce the active ingredient of an expensive painkiller for the first time in May.

The compound, called Celecoxib, was produced at CSIR's new FuturePharma facility in Pretoria using continuous-flow chemistry, an emerging technology.

 

[wingnut771]

Extra bonus for no white males, 150% BBBEE status! Viva Transformation Viva!

 

[Mirai]

This CompuServe?

CompuServe was initiated during 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe#cite_note-5"><span>[</span>a<span>]</span></a> in Columbus, Ohio, as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance.

 

[Azbubu]

Extra bonus for no white males, 150% BBBEE status! Viva Transformation Viva!
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[Gordon_R]

The 'expensive' part of the headline is a complete distraction:

The drug is common in private healthcare, but CSIR researchers explained that public healthcare facilities do not stock the medication due to its cost.

“In the private sector, Celecoxib is a routine treatment, but in the public sector, people don’t readily have access to it,” said CSIR chief researcher Dr Jenny-Lee Panayides.

Google says:

In South Africa, brand-name Celebrex (celecoxib) costs roughly R75 to R90 for a pack of 30 capsules, while generic celecoxib typically ranges from R30 to R60.

If public healthcare can't afford R30 for a box of tablets, then the issue is not the manufacturing process...

 

[Heisenborg]

The only thing that will happen is making it cheaper and still same price for customers or probably more for the new improved forumula

More contracts and more profit

 

[garyc]

in 1980, when the CSIR was involved in the discovery of lithium-metal-oxide material with a spinel-type structure.

This was a major example of missed opportunities. This discovery changed the direction of global battery research, bringing us to our current point. They CSIR team went on to collaborate with the University of Oxford, but the South African programme was shut down in 1992 due to "visionary" managers. South Africa got some royalties from this work, but nowhere near the amount it would have got from the worldwide manufacture of all lithium batteries if it the programme had continued to develop the IP to full utility. Some good did come from it: The head of the Oxford team carried on the work and got a Nobel prize for it, and the head of the CSIR team got a good position in the US.

 

[Roo!]

Google says:

In South Africa, brand-name Celebrex (celecoxib) costs roughly R75 to R90 for a pack of 30 capsules, while generic celecoxib typically ranges from R30 to R60..

That's very wrong, A pack of Celebrex 200mg cost closer to R400 at a pharmacy these days. So even if the generic cost R200 it's still expensive for the average clinic to give out.

 

[zeridine]

That's very wrong, A pack of Celebrex 200mg cost closer to R400 at a pharmacy these days. So even if the generic cost R200 it's still expensive for the average clinic to give out.

Nope. Celebrex 200mg caps 30s cost R80.70 (SEP). With a dispensing fee, expect up to R142. Generics like colcibra is the same SEP. A pack of celebrex 200mg 10s cost R26.90.

 

[Justanotherguybythesea]

Remember the government pays less than $1 for any medication in the formulary, for a month's supply, in the vast majority of cases. For pain relief that is closer to R1 for a pack of 28, a month's supply in most cases that is prescribed, and it is always a generic product. they pay way less than the wholesale price, because they are a single buyer, and get massive volumes, that they then distribute internally.

The suppliers all put in sealed tenders, and the lowest one that meets BEE always wins, unless there is a little bit of work to have those tender documents be "made available" to one of the suppliers, who adjusts the pricing, and then submits his own that is lower. I had to wait one day collecting from one, because his sea shipment had been delayed en route, and he airfreighted in 20 tons of acetylsalicylic acid powder, to hold him over in production for around 2 weeks, till the full shipment arrived. he did not even blink at that airfreight bill, it was a tiny amount compared to the contract money coming in, even with a 9 month delay he was still making a profit. Has a room dedicated to the Springbok cricket team, signed shirts, signed balls and bats, and tickets to every match, irrespective of location, for the last 2 decades.