Most expensive thing on earth, by weight?
*For those that don't know I believe botulism toxin to be the most expensive thing on Earth by weight, after HP ink.
Botox is supplied in 100 unit vials, but the unit is defined by biological activity, so somebody had to go off an measure by other means just how much of the botulinum toxin there is in a vial of Botox.
The answer is here: Content of Botulinum Neurotoxin in Botox®/Vistabel®, Dysport®/Azzalure®, and Xeomin®/Bocouture® - Drugs R D. 2010 Jul; 10(2): 67–73.
Results: Overall, the mean concentration of BoNT/A neurotoxin in Botox® was 0.73 ng per 100 unit vial (coefficient of variation [CV] = 3.5%)
Cost price of Botox is about 550 USD per 100 units, so if there is 0.73 nanograms per 100 units, that's about 550 USD per 0.73 nanograms, or roughly 750,000 million USD per gram.
Fairly high up on the scoreboard for the most expensive stuff by weight would be the Technetium isotope Technetium-99m used in medical imaging, which has a very short half-life of about 6 hours. As a result, it is produced on site from generators from a slightly more stable radioactive element, Molybdenum-99 (half-life of about 66 hours). These generators are sometimes called 'moly-cows' because they are 'milked' for Technetium-99m.
The molybdenum-99 used in the generators is priced at (only) about $46 million per gram - or roughly 4.6 US cents per nanogram.
At the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) conference in Sydney in December 2007, a representative of ANSTO informed the participants that a gram of Mo-99 was “worth” (i.e., could be sold for) about $46 million. Assuming a specific activity for Mo-99 of 4.8 × 105 Ci/g, a curie of Mo-99 is worth about $96 and a 6-day curie is worth about $470. This selling price is just over twice the average cost of production that was estimated by the committee.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
