C39

“Hong Kong is an international city, and because of the relatively lenient policies of the last two years, many people from Vietnam, Laos, and Indonesia have come here. In the last ten years, the number of sick babies received at the orphanage has increased dramatically, and many of them are suffering from frozen blood.”

Xu Mingsheng sighed at this point, “Two days ago, we were invited to Maryknoll Hospital to participate in a seminar, and we were very impressed. Seeing these tiny, soft children lying motionless in their hospital beds, I really feel that we have not done enough.”

“So, I have discussed with Prof. Wang and Prof. Zhao, and I plan to make an appeal at the meeting. I hope everyone can pay attention to this special disease and special medicine.”

“In the back is some materials collected by Xiao Zhang, let’s talk about our opinions.”

Their skin was blue, their limbs and torsos were atrophied and arched into a strange shape, perhaps because they found the camera taking pictures of them.

Li Zheng’s heart trembled.

Indeed, he had done too little. How long had it been since he remembered his original intention of switching from molecular biology to pharmaceuticals? Li Zheng’s fingertips touched the child’s eyes, and his eyelids were lowered so that his expression could not be seen.

“Li Zheng, please tell us what you think.” Xu Mingsheng called out Li Zheng’s name.

Li Zheng put down the data in his hand and said, “Frozen Blood Syndrome is different from ALS; it is a blood disease in nature, in which the number of clotting molecules in the blood increases abnormally, leading to an increase in blood density and gradual coagulation. The current medical practice of using amritsadine to forcibly inhibit the differentiation of clotting molecules can be fatal to infants and children under the age of two weeks.”

“The biggest obstacle to the development of this drug is the clinical four-drug trial and how to find so many sick infants to participate in the trial. Even if they are found, the infants themselves cannot sign a voluntary agreement to participate in a drug trial. The organisation developing this drug is taking a huge public and political risk at the outset. The appeal is not persuasive enough. This appeal is not convincing enough.”

Li Zheng’s words were calm and cruel. Extremely low market expectations and great public and political risks could lead to a label being attached to the drug at any time. The appeal was a bit thin in the face of these realistic conditions, as it could be labelled as immoral and human experimentation at any time.

Li Zheng’s words were too sharp and too realistic, and the office fell silent.

Professor Zhao patted Li Zheng’s shoulder, “The problems of reality are hard to overcome, and we can only do what we can.”

After leaving Xu Mingsheng’s office, Li Zheng didn’t go back to the classroom or the hotel but went to Jing Garden.

The current Jing Garden should be renamed Qing Garden, because the Jing Garden’s Jing was Shen Hongjing’s Jing. When this land came into the hands of Li Zheng, the name was naturally inappropriate.

But Li Zheng didn’t want to spend time thinking of a name, so he simply removed the straw initials above the word “Jing” and changed the name to Qing[tn: means green] Garden.

The engineering team sent by Mr. Liang moved quickly, with the five villas having their outer walls covered with stone, the Qing Garden was surrounded by a high iron fence, and the people sent by the security company were on duty 24 hours a day with extremely high security.

“About how long will it take to finish?” Li Zheng asked.

The foreman said smilingly, “Don’t worry, boss, the butler said your equipment will be here in a month and a half, and we’ll make sure it’s ready before you get here.

One and a half month ……

He couldn’t wait another day!

Li Zheng called Zhou Sitian and told him that he was going to Tokyo in a few days to attend an international conference, and then immediately entered the lab.

This lab was borrowed from Xu Mingsheng, who not only borrowed the lab but also borrowed two graduate students to help him, one of whom was the male student he met this morning.

The male bully was also surprised to see Li Zheng. Today at noon, he suddenly received a call from Dean Xu, asking him and his younger brother to help out in the lab.

Zhang Yuegun was naturally very happy to have such an opportunity. The laboratory was like a social enterprise, with a very clear hierarchy inside. At the top of the hierarchy was the person in charge of the lab, the actual owner of the lab, Xu Mingsheng, followed by several researchers at the associate professor level, who were often able to host a project independently and had a great deal of autonomy.

Next were the researchers who were not able to lead a project independently, including junior associate professors and lecturers who were trying to move up the rank of associate professor. Finally, there were the graduate lab dogs.

First-class lab dogs could participate in a little project research, and if the project coordinator was happy, he or she could give you a corner to work on, that was the second job, which was very valuable.

Second-class lab dogs, commonly known as odd jobs, had access to experimental equipment, and could perform some simple experimental operations at the request of the project moderator or first-class lab dogs, which were generally repetitive labor.

The third-class lab dogs, well, they gathered information. All they could strive for was not to enter a position in the fourth or fifth class, which was a nice way of saying it, but in reality, it didn’t carry much weight.

Zhang Yuegun was considered a first-class lab dog, otherwise, it would not be his turn to attend the Asian Biopharmaceutical Congress. His younger brother, Liu Menglin, was a second-class lab dog, already in his second year of research, and had two second-writes, one being a second-write SCI paper and the other a second-write ordinary paper.

But Zhang did not expect that after waiting for a whole afternoon, he would find Li Zheng instead of Professor so-and-so.

A freshman?

Are you f*cking kidding me? Zhang Yuejun’s heart could not help but curse his mother.

Naturally, Li Zheng could see what Zhang and Liu were thinking, so he walked into the lab, put on his shoe covers, took off his coat and hung it on the hanger, put on his lab coat, washed his hands, and put on his rubber gloves.

He stretched his neck, then turned to Zhang and Liu and said, “My name is Li Zheng, and I’ll introduce myself. A month and a half ago, I published a paper on ‘Drug Catalyst’ in Microbiology, and two weeks ago, I successfully extracted the drug catalyst in the public laboratory of the University of Hong Kong and signed a patent licensing contracts with two pharmaceutical companies. Three days ago, I used the patent money paid by the drug companies to buy the land in the Jing Garden, ten kilometers away from the University of Hong Kong, for the construction of my own laboratory.”

Li Zheng’s reason for listing his deeds in such a high-profile manner was not to show off. Rather, he understood the difference between a reluctant lab dog and a motivated lab dog.

Although the lab dogs did tedious chores and mindless repetitive labor, it was undeniable that they saved a lot of time for the project coordinators. It was an accepted fact that lab dogs were indispensable in a laboratory.

A freshman ……

“Whether I am telling the truth or not, you can ask Professor Xu for confirmation. You should know something about the project I’m working on now, Senior Zhang. We are very short on time, I hope the two seniors can help me as much as they can, and I promise to give two-second composition positions.” Li Zheng paused, “The second composition of a significant SCI paper.”

Zhang and Liu couldn’t speak, they knew that what Li Zheng said was true, Xu Mingsheng was their mentor, no one would tell such a lie that could be broken with a single poke. Zhang Yuegun and Liu Menglin looked at Li Zheng, then had a look at themselves, and suddenly felt that they had been living for so many years with nothing.

“I don’t know how to address you, so why don’t I just call you by your name? I don’t seem to know too well.” Zhang Yuejun scratched his head, looking confused.

Dumbfounded, Li Zheng took off a rubber glove and took out from his bag the morning’s information about “frozen blood”.

“Seniors, just call me by my name, this is the information on ‘frozen blood’, Professor Xu said that you collected it.”

“Er, right.” Zhang Yuejun nodded.

“That’s right, the conference is on the 31st, we’re leaving on the 30th, there are less than five days to go, I’m going to do a little bit of advance work on the frozen blood disease drug research.” Li Zheng bowed his head and put his gloves back on.

Zhang Yuejun looked dumbfounded, and Liu Menglin was obviously still confused, he picked up the information and flipped through it, then stared at Li Zheng with incredulous eyes.

You’re kidding!

The average cost of developing a new drug was about $2.6 billion and the average number of years in development was 7-11 years, according to data provided by the Tufts Center for Drug Development Research.

You saw a profile this morning and told us at noon that you’re working on a new drug?

Li Zheng saw the suspicion in their eyes and rubbed his temples, he began to miss his research team.

“Death from frozen blood is caused by an abnormal increase in the number of clotting molecules, and there is already amritsadine on the market that can specifically treat this condition, but it is not suitable for infants and children under two years old. But this at least shows that the composition of the amritsadine can be used as a reference for the development of drugs for frozen blood, and our experiments are not clueless.” Li Zheng patiently explained.

Seeing that they still looked like they couldn’t believe it, he coughed, “Of course, I won’t let the two seniors help for nothing, except for the second work I promised. The time you spend helping me in the lab is calculated by the hour, ten Hong Kong dollars per hour.”

In the 1980s, when the average salary in Hong Kong was only one thousand yuan a month, this was already a very high level of salary.

Zhang Yuegun and Liu Menglin’s eyes lit up as they looked at each other, “That’s not very nice. It’s Professor Xu who asked us to help you.”

Li Zheng smiled, “There’s no shame in getting paid according to your work. I promise, this is our little secret. Professor Xu won’t know about it.”

Zhang Yuejun and Liu Menglin’s smiles were a lot more real when they heard that. Whether he was daydreaming or not, they had the money, and if he succeeded in developing a new drug, they would still be able to make a second job, which would be profitable.

The two of them immediately said, “Just tell us what you need, and we’ll do our best to help.”

Li Zheng smiled and nodded, then immediately went into work.

“Liu Menglin, before five o’clock this afternoon, get all the information about Aminomisartine to the lab, especially the report of its drug testing phase, and find it!”

“Zhang Yuejun, repeat the process of making adalimumab, recording each step, adding and subtracting ingredients, and observing how it reacts with clotting agents!”

“Okay.”

“Yes.”

Not bad for an experienced experimental dog, with Li Zheng’s commands, they quickly ran.