Ask HN: Is it possible to synthesize chloroquine at home, if so – how?
With the ongoing corona virus crisis, ánd mounting evidence that chloroquine (and hydrochloroquine) functions as an effective suppressant/cure for COVID-19, I was wondering if it is possible at all to synthesize (safely!!) those compounds using widely available resources and raw materials.
Perhaps a list of needed raw materials, list of resources needed and a step wise recipe would be useful in the coming weeks.
If this is not possible to do safely, perhaps someone knowledgeable can shed light on why that is.
9 comments
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 35.7 ms ] threadhttps://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjoc/articles/14/45
That kind of continuous flow chemistry is a revolution, something like 3D printing.
That's old enough that there is no patent on the drug and I am sure many public domain synthesis paths: somebody might have a newer, better, cheaper way to make it which is patented, but there is no legal barrier to making it.
> The core list presents a list of minimum medicine needs for a basic health-care system, listing the most efficacious, safe and cost–effective medicines for priority conditions. Priority conditions are selected on the basis of current and estimated future public health relevance, and potential for safe and cost-effective treatment.
WHO is saying "this medication is the safest medication available to treat malaria". It's definitely not saying "this medication is safe".
For chloroquine they say "* For use only for the treatment of P.vivax infection", so they're not even saying "this is the safest med for malaria", they're saying "for this one type of malaria this is the safest med".