The founder of the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective, a network of tech-fueled anarchists and hackers taking on Big Pharma by introducing DIY medicine, linked to encrypted files to what rumor has it contain the Chematica database (which was acquired by Merck pharmaceuticals last year).
Dr. Mixael S. Laufer tweeted out links to dark web tor websites with the purported encrypted data that he recently spoke about at HOPE conference. Laufer urged the audience to help with cracking the password to the database to release the data into the world, which as a result would bring a new age of DIY medicines.
“I think it’s absolutely imperative that information about how to make your own medicines should be as easily accessible as possible to everyone who might have even a passing interest,” Laufer told Motherboard. “The goal of the group is to make it possible for people to be able to do these things on their own. The idea that someone could download the instructions, read the list of materials, order them, read the instructions for how to assemble it and program it, upload the code, order precursor chemicals, and then manufacture medicine.”
Four Thieves’ g0al is to develop synthesis pathways that lower the risk of toxic reactions to the lowest possible level, according to Motherboard.
When Four Thieves first began, they had help creating synthesis pathways from a startup company called Chematica, which had collected 250 years of research on organic chemical synthesis into a database and developed software that used synthesis pathways to desired molecules. With this database and software, Four Thieves was able to create simple and safe synthesis pathways that would produce life-saving drugs.
“The rhetoric that is espoused by people who defend intellectual property law is that this is theft,” Laufer told me. “If you accept that axiomatically, then by the same logic when you withhold access to lifesaving medication that’s murder. From a moral standpoint it’s an imperative to enact theft to prevent murder.”
“So yeah, we are encouraging people to break the law,” Laufer added. “If you’re going to die and you’re being denied the medicine that can save you, would you rather break the law and live, or be a good upstanding citizen and a corpse?”
After the sale of Chematica to Merck last year, Four Thieves lost access to Chematica’s software and database. Laufer stated in the Motherboard interview that Four Thieves’ data science team created an open source version of Chematica’s software and has even compiled a small database of organic chemicals to test it on. However, they need more data to test the software.
So far, Four Thieves has produced five working drugs. Although, only one DIY manual is available for Daraprim on the collective’s website. The Four Thieves also have a DIY EpiPen for $30 and MicroLab chemical synthesizer, with instructions on how to use the Microlab.
The Four Thieves were even given an honorable mention for their work by the FDA. Although not by name, shortly after Four Thieves unveiled its $30 DIY EpiPen, the FDA issued a statement to the media stating that “using unapproved prescription drugs for personal use is a potentially dangerous practice.”
The hackers and anarchists are threatening one of the world’s biggest industries, the pharmaceutical industry, which is valued at $446 billion in the United States alone. Will they be successful and disrupt Big Pharma by releasing DIY medical technologies that are cheaper than their competitors? Time will tell.
This seems a potentially positive step for humanity to take back the reins from these megalithic pharmaceutical companies, especially if some hero password cracker steps up to decrypt the files.
Poster Comment:
“The rhetoric that is espoused by people who defend intellectual property law is that this is theft,” Laufer told me. “If you accept that axiomatically, then by the same logic when you withhold access to lifesaving medication that’s murder. From a moral standpoint it’s an imperative to enact theft to prevent murder.”
“So yeah, we are encouraging people to break the law,” Laufer added. “If you’re going to die and you’re being denied the medicine that can save you, would you rather break the law and live, or be a good upstanding citizen and a corpse?”
