WEBVTT - The Bastards That Kill Diabetics for a Profit 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:05.920 M everybody. I'm Robert Evans, and this is Behind the Bastards, 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:07.680 the show where we tell you everything you don't know 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.000 about the very worst people in all of history. And 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.320 this was the highest energy introduction I've ever done. Sophie 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.720 is laughing at me over in the corner. I don't 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.880 understand why I thought it sounded pretty cool, fonds esque. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.400 This is a show where I read a terrible story 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.439 about history, about someone bad, or someone's bad, or usually 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.280 a bunch of bad people doing bad things to a 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:32.400 guest who is coming in cold and today that very 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:37.320 cold guest is Katie Golden. Might be Katie coming in 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.479 Colden anyway. She's birds rights activists on Twitter, where she 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.159 advocates for birds even though as I understand that millennials 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.440 are saying birds aren't real, those are lies, Those are 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.080 communist lives, communists lies. She's also the host of another 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.960 podcast on This Stuff Network, Creature feature great podcast about 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.680 animals doing weird ass shit science and stuffy science. Step. Yeah, 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:05.320 we talked about animals and drugs. It's great to do drugs. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.280 It is great to do drugs. Uh. Speaking of drugs 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.080 that are great to do today we're talking about insulin, 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.080 which is not a well, I mean, it's fun and 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.759 that if you need to take it, you die not 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.480 taking it, right, I think it's fun not to die. 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.000 It is fun not to die, relatively fun not to die. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.280 Yet it was fun not to die of insulin shock 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.160 or diabetic comas and stuff. Not fun. So I'm just 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.880 going to get into it. On November seventeen, several parents 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.200 brought the ashes of their dead children to the doorstep 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.399 of the offices of Santa Fee, a pharmaceutical company that 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:42.280 produces insulin. Sanofie and other insulin producers like Eli Lily 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.240 have been steadily raising the prices of their insulin for years. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.240 Because of this, insulin can cost as much as a 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.200 thousand dollars a month for people without decent insurance. Oh 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:57.160 my god, that's I I can't imagine spending a thousand 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.160 dollars a month on anything of there than like rent, 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.120 I guess, but even even a pretty expensive town. So 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.040 you're essentially renting your own body, like you want to 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.200 keep living in your body. A thousand bucks rent, yeah, 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.400 get you a decent place like in Culver City. I 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:17.760 feel like when I lived in Culver my rent was 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:23.280 about thousand months. Yeah, so it's it's frustrating, right, it's 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.280 a little frist It's a little frustrating because clearly, I mean, 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.000 no country on Earth can afford something like single pair 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.520 of healthcare anywhere. It never be done. Um, and our 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.480 government needs its money for stuff like I did you 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.040 hear about when that hurricane hit the East coast the 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.840 military forgot to remove like eleven two and they all 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.839 got destroyed. That was one point four billion dollars. Well, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.400 they gotta could have bought a lot. They gotta put 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.880 another billion dollar coin in the f twenty seven vending machines. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.040 The funniest thing is there's no vending machine. We can't 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.080 make the parts for them anymore, stop manufacturing any of 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.919 the things that they are placeable. So, oh good, but 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.359 we can't afford to help people with here. I'm sure 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.079 we'll find a way to dig deep into the earth 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.240 and find things that will destroy our planet that can 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.400 make new airplanes. Yeah, I'm sure we will. Now, people 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.480 with type one diabetes do not naturally produce insulin, which 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.880 is a magical substance that lets sugar not kill us 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.440 instead of be delicious. I'm a fan of insulin yeah, 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.079 I'm a big fan. Now, when insulin costs as much, 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.160 if not more than rent, many people stopped taking it 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.760 as often as they should and ration their precious supply 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.239 so that they can afford to do things like exist 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.320 in a capitalist society and pay the aforementioned rent that 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.200 we've been talking right. Also, um food, because here's the thing. 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.640 Here's the thing is like insulin is basically useless if 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.720 you don't eat, if right, because then you don't get 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.640 any sugar, which without insulin. You know, it's like, well, 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.440 I mean, Katie, I was really sympathetic with these people, 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.480 but I think you've identified a way that they could 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:59.000 not need insulin, which is the no eat diet. And 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.680 you won't of insulent shock. You'll just die of starvation. 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.560 I do think they'll die. Oh yeah, you're right, probably 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.840 medically speaking. Yesterday, Well, neither of us are doctors. No, 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.200 you're not a doctor. No, I'm not a doctor. Fantastic, 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.320 but I do read web and b like a lot. Well, 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.440 then you're basically a doctor, fantastic now. Alec Rashawn Smith 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.279 was one of the young people who got caught in 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.839 this deadly dance with a necessary drug. When he was 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.160 twenty six, he aged out of his mother's health insurance. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.880 One month after his birthday, he died of diabetic shock. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.760 Smith's mom, Nicole, was one of the grieving parents who 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.320 brought her son's ashes to Santa Fee that November day. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.240 She told the Boston Globe she wanted the company to quote, no, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.640 the price of their product is killing people when it's 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.520 intended to save lives. Antoinette Worsham, whose twenty two year 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.680 old daughter Antavia died last year while rationing insulin, told 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.159 another interviewer that for people like her daughter, it's either 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.760 pay your rent, pay your car payment, or get your medication. 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.279 Diabetes is currently the seventh leading cause of death in 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.120 the United States. I heard this story of this guy 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.960 who because like I've heard this thing where people say, well, 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.240 just go fund me if you can't afford your medication 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.279 instead of healthcare. Yeah, there was a guy who did 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:13.000 that very thing and he short, yeah, fifty dollars short 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.760 of reaching his goal in the way. It was his 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.839 monthly calls, right, and he needed insulin to survive, and 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:21.680 he didn't have the money to pay for it, and 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.400 he was like taking care of his ailing mom too. 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:26.200 So that's part of the reason. He didn't have that 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.080 high of an income, so like he tried to get it. 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.560 He was fifty dollar short of reaching his goal. So 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.680 you know how go fund me works. Then you get 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.080 none of that money and he died. Yeah he should. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.000 We will be talking about him a little bit later. 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:45.000 Oh good. So clearly this situation is fucked right that 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:46.680 it seems fun. Seems like we can all get on 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:48.920 the same page. There, it's like a little like just 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:54.160 maybe a smidge fun the old F bomb. Yeah, so 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.839 what is fun? Why is this so messed up? People 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.120 are dying? Well, I'm saying that that's why it's messed up, 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:06.560 Like why why would because insulin is not a new drug. Usually, 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.159 when you've got like a case of this where something 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.360 is incredibly expensive, it's number one, a drug that very 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.720 few people need, and number two a drug that's really new. 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.200 Because then you know, that's the way that these patents work. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.640 For most medicines, After about twenty years after their invention, 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.640 a generic patent comes out that's fairly affordable, right, right, 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:24.600 That's one of the ways our system is supposed to work, 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:27.680 so that that keeps drugs affordable for normal people, but 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.560 also gives an incentive for companies to invest in research 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.160 and whatnot. Right, that is the promise in our capitalist 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.600 system is that you will get better medicine under this system, 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:39.719 because companies will find new medicines, you know, essentially due 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.000 to the profit motive, but because of the way that 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.560 this generic drug like that. That's the idea, Right, that's 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.200 the promise that we've all bought in this system. Otherwise 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.040 poor people are middle class people would never be able 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.200 to afford medicine exactly. Insulin has existed for nearly a century, 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.640 but there is no cheap generic insulin available in the 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.640 United States today. We're going to talk talk about why. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.040 But first we are going to talk about the invention 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.839 of insulin as a medicine. Most cursory coverage of this 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.640 will give credit to Dr Frederick Banting, some mention a 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.880 small team of scientists who work with him. When I 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:12.800 decided to look into it this story, it's because I 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.360 ran across a tweet about Banting. It stated that he 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:17.480 had given the invention of medical insulin to the world, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:19.680 put it in the public domain, essentially as a gift 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:21.600 to humanity, because he didn't want to profit off and 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.600 he wanted people to be able to get medicine, and 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.160 so the tweet was basically like this wonderful founder gave 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.040 insulin to the world and wanted people to have it 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.760 for free, and then the evil pharmaceutical companies fucked it up, 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.360 which is true, but not detailed enough. So I wanted 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.400 to know what that story was. Let's get the details. 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.680 So let's get the diets. That's what we are going 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.840 to be talking about today. Now, like most things you 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.040 find on social media, that version of events is not 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:45.800 quite accurate. Insulin did not have a single inventor, and 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.680 while pharmaceutical companies are the ultimate bastards here, the full 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.600 story is weirder, sadder, and more infuriating than that. In 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.680 Dr Frederick Banting was the first person to isolate secretions 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.920 from isolate cells, the cells that make insulin. He suggested 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.280 these might hold a treat for diabetes, and he was 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.760 basically right. He came up with a plan to tie 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.320 up the pancreatic ducts of laboratory dogs and make their 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.119 pancreases overproduce the cells that contain insulin until everything else 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.600 in the pancreas dies. That was the idea, right, we 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:20.600 did dogs die. The hope was they wouldn't. This is 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.040 actually initially envision is like its beautiful one to punch 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.480 because we make these dogs pancreases overproduced the cells. They 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.280 didn't really know. Insulin was like insulin was a theoretical 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.600 substance they called, I think insuline. There was an e. 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.480 I don't know how they pronounced it, but it was 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.720 spelled insuline. And the theory was like, if we make 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.040 these dogs pancreases produce a bunch of these cells, we 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.000 can take the pancreases out and they will contain concentrated 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.960 versions that then we can extract whatever in the pancreas 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:45.840 shoot it into a diabetic It will make them better. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.839 So the idea was, we gotta take these dogs pancreases 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.240 out in order to do this thing, but then we 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:53.560 can just give them what we make from it, and 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.679 if it works, it's a beautiful one too. Thing we 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.760 don't have to kill the dogs will know that we've 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.599 got a treatment for diabetes because these dogs won't be 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:01.839 able to pre sinsulin. After we stuck up their pancreases. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.000 Seemed like it was like a nice circle that they 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.439 had that they had developed um Now, the problem with 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.160 Banting's plan is that he was not up to date 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.760 on the work other scientists were doing testing blood sugar 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.600 to find diabetes and patients Banting did urine testing to 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.079 find out blood sugar levels, which is not just did 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:19.600 you just like taste it, because I know I just 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.200 tasting their well, one of the one of the things 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:26.080 is like, um, if you taste your urine or smell 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:30.640 your urine, it tastes sweet. It's a sign of diabetes 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.960 because it's like I think it's called hyperkalemia, and it's 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.120 because you're finding more sugars in your urine. You know, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.199 I've only drank my pea once. Uh for my book 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.400 A Brief History advice, because I was I was trying 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.680 an ancient Meso American treatment where you mix tobacco, garlic 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.480 and urine as a treatment for constipation. It works, it 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.560 makes you very ill, but functions and its intended purpose. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.640 I was not paying attention to how sweet it was. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:00.320 There was a lot of garlic in there too, right, 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.319 The garlic is well, the garlic is going to cut 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.520 the sweetness as it's cooking. You know it's gonna But 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:07.080 it sounds like what you're saying is that we should 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:08.880 all be drinking r P every morning to learn if 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.360 we are just a little bit a little bit. Just 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:14.439 don't drink a lot of don't drink a lot of 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:19.120 your taste a sample. That's the new behind the bastard's motto. 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.640 Sample your own, sample your P, sample your P. Right, 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.200 this will be marketable. Let's get a T shirt going, 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.439 sample pie. Start that process. Okay, So if he's shaking 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.320 her head, she's not happy with that. All right, let's 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.400 move on to talking about diabetes some more. So. Banny 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.400 was the first guy to start isolating the slate cells 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.480 that contain the hormone insulin, but the amounts he was 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.240 able to get were too small to really be useful 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:43.720 in his His work had a bunch of holes in it. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.160 You know, he was good at a couple of things, 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.439 but he was almost taking a lot of other areas. 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.240 So we had to partner with other scientists. Professor John 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.240 James Rickard McLeod was the head of physiology at the 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.839 University of Toronto. McLeod agreed to give him laboratory space 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.120 for his experiments, and he also served as sort of 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:00.920 the manager in over. So you're for the whole project 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:05.080 because Banting was an unstable personality of an asshole. So McLeod, 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.960 you means some scientists are assholes. Yes, really, the kind 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.040 of guy who would who would poison the dog's pancreas 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.040 in order to try to solve it as ease isn't 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.520 great at working with other people. Interesting, I mean er intuitive, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:21.760 but you know you need to do the research. This 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:23.920 horrible thing has to happen. But the kind of guy 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:25.600 who's like, oh, yeah, what if we just toward your 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:27.960 dogs to figure this out, it's probably not fun to 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.760 work with. And he wasn't maybe just a little too. 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.640 He's got tunnel vision there. He's just so focused on 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.600 that insulin. Everyone else is like, but dogs, there's just 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.760 dead dogs everywhere. I know. I'm almost corpses, just crumpled 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.240 up dog. We get it right, the dogs won't die. 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.559 He's just at his desk and he's like, damn it, 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.000 and he crinkles up another dog and tossed it. Just 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.640 the trash can full of dead dogs. Sophie is really 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.720 not loving this conversation. There is a dog in the room, 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.000 but because Anderson is a dog, does not understand what 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.240 we're talking about which is the mercy of being a dog. 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.439 Now back to the story. Banting came to hate McLeod 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.240 because McLeod was good at talking and explaining their work 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.960 to other people at conventions. Uh well, Banting was an 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.320 introvert and a big old nerd. So Banting started to 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.120 worry that like McLeod was going to outshine him and 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.199 get credit, even though remything I've been able to read, 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.160 McLeod was just about, oh, yeah, this is a really 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.400 important cause. I want to do everything I can do 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:26.680 to make sure that this research gets completely He goes 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:28.880 like on Reddit to complain about him, like what a 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.400 stupid science child, Banting? Would a thousand percent be a 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.480 Reddit dude? Although we'll get to yeah a second. So 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.640 Banting had an assistant, a guy named Charles Herbert Best, 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:43.120 who did Charles Charles though I thought this is a 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:50.080 fancy form of you know, Charles Charlie char No, No, 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.760 not at all, plain old Charles like an American reading 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:58.840 podcast for three hours. So Charles Herbert Best was his assistant, 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.240 and Best did a lot of crucial work in the process. 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.280 And it seems fair to say in general that all 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.640 three men were critical parts of the development of insulin 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.199 as an effective medication. When they started their work, the 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.960 existence of insulin was still not a confirmed fact. We 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.240 knew that the islets of linger Hends, which is the 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.520 name of those little cells, produced something that helped regulate sugar. 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.360 Insulin was at this point still just the name of 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.720 a hypothetical substance scientist thought existed. So just as a 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.480 quick side note, the islets of Lingerham, imagine them as 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:31.640 like these little islands, that little British islands microbial size. 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.920 Langerham expedition goes out and discovers like little white blood 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.120 cells and naval hats. Sorry that I just had to 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:43.719 get that image, Duke. Yeah, you're right, that's yeah, that's 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:48.760 how it was discovered. Tiny tiny explorers, tiny explorers. Banting, 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.480 McLeod and Best started work in May nine. It did 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.319 not go well at first. I found an article in 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:56.760 the Journal of Clinical Chemistry that went into the discovery 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.800 of insulin in exhausting detail. Here's how they described the 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.880 few months of work. After legation of the ducts, the 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.120 dogs were expected to recover from the surgery and live 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.719 more or less normally. After several weeks, the pancreas and 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.640 able to secrete fluid into the duadendum would gradually atrophy 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.680 and would be removed in process to extract the internal secretion. 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.160 The extract would then be administered to other dogs made 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.840 diabetic by removal of the pancreas. It was a laborious 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.080 task for someone with no experience and animal work, and 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.080 it did not go well at first his Banting struggle 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.240 to improve his surgical technique. By the end of the 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.840 second week, seven of their tin dogs had died. To 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.680 resupply the animal cages, they resorted to buying dogs in 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.960 the streets of Toronto. The three dollars with no questions asked, 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.000 we need dogs, We need a lot of dogs. It's 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.320 just some guy with an overcoat, Like, hey, I heard 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.360 you was looking for dogs. This doctors never worked on dogs. 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.560 He's killing the left and right. It's just like opening 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.360 up the trench coat and I'll give you nine dollars. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:57.440 Is that enough for three dogs? They're like off brand dogs, 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.360 Like no, no, these are dogs. Three of these are cats. 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:09.440 Sophie really not happy with me right now. We should 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.560 be good. We should be good. Sorry, we had to 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.480 deal with some noise. We also learned something that I'm 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.360 just coming into which is that the guy have been 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:23.960 calling McLeod is is McLeod So everybody have a good 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:29.520 real mcclaude, aren't you. Everybody have a good laugh, good 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.720 old laugh at old old Robert Evans's expense not knowing 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:38.400 enough about scotsman. Uh so, Um, you may have already 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:40.360 noticed that this is horrible because dogs are good, and 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.480 medically torturing them to death is bad. But the world 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:44.840 is a gigantic wheel of pain and brutal crush and cruelty, 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.680 and sometimes is sometimes necessary in order to save the 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.720 lives of billions of diabetics. Uh so, yeah, that's just 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.320 the way the world works. Sometimes dogs continue to diet 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.600 rapid rates throughout the research, but Banting and Best were 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.040 eventually successful in creating an extract that seemed to work 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.080 at regulating the blood sugar of dogs who'd had their 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.840 appendix is removed. They debuted their work to an audience. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:04.400 It was one of those things you've seen on TV 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:06.840 where the doctors do their work in like a big 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.320 pit surrounded by an auditorium full of other doctors and 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.360 pharmaceutical industry people. Old timey thanks they had like they 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.440 had instead of bags of popcorn was like bags dead dogs, 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.760 bags of dead dogs, and those little circle things on 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.120 their heads that old timey doctors wore. One man present 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.160 at this early insulin demo was George H. A. Cloud's, 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.400 a research director for Eli Lily, the pharmaceutical company. After 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.680 the presentation, he sidled up to McLoud and asked if 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:33.640 his company could work with the scientists in order to 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.280 get a product on the market sooner. McLeod turned him down, 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.440 claiming that the work was not far enough along yet. 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.320 This seems to have pissed Banting off, largely because McLoud 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.240 had spoken for the group. Banting was also frustrated by 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.120 the fact that McLoud was a much better presenter than 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.600 he was, which made Banting worry that other scientists would 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.400 get the credit and popular acclaim Banting felt he deserved. 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.360 So like Banting is like watching as McLeod is like 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.440 riding in on a skateboard and like hey dudes, and 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:02.160 like like he's just like curing and he's too nervous 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.359 to talk to anyone, so we can't answer the questions 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.160 which McLeod can. But then he's like he's taking credit 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.240 for me. He's getting shoved in science lockers. He totally 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.840 would be an in cell. I'm calling it now. The 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.240 inventor of insulin is an in cell. Yeah, yeah, perfect 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:24.520 involuntary cellular biologist. Nice, nice, nice, really good. Uh So 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:26.320 it took a lot more work and a lot more 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.480 dead dogs before Banting and his team made more progress 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.000 on insulin. By nine two, they were close to a breakthrough, 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.600 and Banting decided that McLeod was the center of a 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.320 gigantic conspiracy to steal the credit for their immediate breakthrough. 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:38.800 Banting and his team started to work with another scientist 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.399 named colep Colip had figured out how to actually purify 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.439 the pancreatic extracts that they were making and create usable insulin. 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.399 In January of n the group carried out a clinical 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.160 test of their new extract that failed disastrously. The bad 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.919 results sparked a fight, and during a heated exchange, Colip 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.720 threatened to leave the band and take his purification method 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.680 with him. He threatened to patent it's that they'd have 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.200 to pay him to use it. So was Eli only 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.440 the yoko oh no of the situation or they were 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.440 just sparking a fight, Yes, but they didn't They hadn't 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.840 done anything yet. Calyp was kind of the well, no 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.840 Banting was, the Banting was the Yoko was both Yoko 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:18.680 and Lennon Ouch. That's a that's a harsh personality to have. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.399 He seems like a rough guy to work with. So 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.080 uh yeah. Here's a quote from that journal article about 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.200 the invention of insulin. This was a breach of the 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.919 agreement between Calyp, Banting, and Best to exchange all results. 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.680 Banting never showed a righteous anger or noted for meekness 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.760 or restraint. When he felt wronged, exploded with clinched fists, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.040 and in a moment Calyp was laying dazed on the 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.040 floor of the laboratory. Fortunately he was not seriously hurt. 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.919 There are no contemporary records of this encounter, no reference 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.080 by Colip, and only two accounts, neither of which, according 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.919 to Bliss, should be considered entirely reliable. One was by 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.480 Banting and his unpublished nineteen forty memoir, the other by 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.840 Best in a letter to Sir Henry Dale dated February 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.040 twenty nine. So he like beat him with his fists, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.520 but he didn't hurt him at all. He beat him 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.520 with his fist and I think it probably hurt pretty bad, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.560 but calyp was too felt bashful about it and didn't 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:07.680 write about it. Banting is the only one who wrote 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:09.920 about it, because I'm thinking maybe his fists were like 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.600 soft and small as apricots, and it's just like that, 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:18.800 like I solved as small as acot oh apricot apricot 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:22.000 handed Banting. That's it's possible too. It's possibly just sucked 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.800 it punching right, But either way, I just liked this 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.399 story of like these genius scientists creating one of the 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.880 most valuable medicines in history, fist fighting each other over 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.240 the credit at one point. It's beautiful. Now, the four 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.840 scientists did eventually work out their disagreements enough to allow 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:38.640 them to get back to work. Banting and Best would 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.000 de pancreatized dogs, Colip wouldn't extract insulin, and McCloud would 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.200 coordinate everyone's research, everybody doing playing to their strengths, play 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.600 into their strength, like you're great at deep pancretize deep pancretizing. 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.159 Is that he was the best to pancretizer. Nobody's questioning 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.160 Banting's ability to take out dogs. You can PANCRETI tin 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.119 pancreas as a per minute. If you're if you've had 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.760 a dog with too many pancreai, this is your man. 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:10.919 He's got ten ppm. So um. Banting developed a hatred 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.080 for the professor that made his life unbearable. Banting became 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.639 an alcoholic, regularly drinking himself to sleep. Since it was prohibition, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.360 he had to steal liquor hundred and ninety proof alcohol 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.200 from the laboratory. He later said, I do not think 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:25.240