As a former pharmaceutical chemist I’m calling bullshit.
Could they have made a few grams of nalaxone? Sure it’s pretty simple. Did they make enough to make a difference? No. Did they make sufficiently pure drug so that people don’t get poisoned? Probably not.
And did they make the AIDS drug? He’ll no. That synthesis is way more complicated than their mini lab can handle.
It makes for good VICE articles, but these guys are amateurs who are likely going to get someone killed.
Is there some route to naloxone that I am not aware of that doesn't start from some opiate or opium alkaloid? The morphine total syntheses I've read were rather involved and low-yield. Perhaps progress made on the biosynthetic step through reticuline? That would be exciting.
Article covers that. They start with oxycodone. From that a reduction to hydromorphone and then methylation to nalaxone. Not easy chemistry, but only two steps.
Could they have made a few grams of nalaxone? Sure it’s pretty simple. Did they make enough to make a difference? No. Did they make sufficiently pure drug so that people don’t get poisoned? Probably not.
And did they make the AIDS drug? He’ll no. That synthesis is way more complicated than their mini lab can handle.
It makes for good VICE articles, but these guys are amateurs who are likely going to get someone killed.