this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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Wow, almost as if we should have critical factories all around the world, not just where the workforce is cheap..
Paracetamol is made all over the world. It's not complex and it's cheap.
The article discusses that this current issue is predominantly because paracetamol is usually derived from petrochemical feedstocks. It was originally discovered while testing coal tar analgesic analogues.
There are very recent developments to make it from pine tar so that it doesn't require petrochemicals, but that has not yet become a large part of the industry.
Thank you for opening this! Especially the pine tar link is interesting, since I know a guy who made, at home, their own acetylsalicylic acid from willow bark. Worked well! Interesting stuff.