Chapter 37: Biotech R&D Base

"Recently, Philip Dickson, Chairman of the Medicines Safety Commission, has been investigated by London police for allegedly accepting bribes..."

"Affected by the Coffee Gate incident, the stock prices of companies such as Wellcome, AstraZeneca, and Glaxo have continued to fall, hitting the limit down for a week in a row, with a market value evaporation of about 300 million pounds..."

"Due to the impact of the October stock market crash, the market reacted fiercely to the limit down of several companies' stocks. Experts interpreted that this sharp decline in medical stocks would not cause a chain reaction and called on investors not to panic..."

Murphy curled his lips. "They are unlucky."

Just in October of this year, the world had just experienced a major stock market crash. On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Index plunged 508.32 points in one day, a drop of 22.6%. In just over 6 hours, the New York stock index lost 500 billion, a value equivalent to one-eighth of the US GDP at the time.

That day was called Black Monday by Wall Street.

A terrible panic immediately swept the world, and stock markets in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other places plummeted.

By the end of October, the British stock market had fallen by 26%, and countless millionaires became destitute overnight.

Even though a month or two had passed, the terrible memory of the stock market crash still lingered in people's minds, and countless people had become birds of prey.

This time, these pharmaceutical companies were purely because they were framed by Murphy, which caused their stock prices to fall for a while. If it were in the past, they might have done good public relations and cutting, and they would have come back soon.

But this time, not only was the public opinion pressure getting bigger and bigger, but it also happened to catch up with the biggest stock market crash in history, which directly drove their stock prices to the bottom, and even the entire medical sector was greatly affected.

Regarding this, Murphy could only raise a glass with Patrick to celebrate and express his condolences.

This was not purely gloating; their market value shrinkage also brought Murphy substantial benefits. For example, a research institute under Wellcome was originally valued at more than 5 million pounds and wouldn't sell, but now it was directly asking Umbrella to buy it for 1 million pounds.

They were now in urgent need of understanding from Umbrella, and they would agree to any conditions, otherwise, they would see their own homes collapsing.

Murphy naturally didn't be polite and had already packaged and acquired three research institutions. If it weren't for the fact that it was already enough, Murphy intended to package all their pharmaceutical factories as well.

At the same time, taking advantage of the soaring reputation of the Umbrella Corporation, Murphy also launched several rounds of financing, selling 8% of the shares for nearly 100 million pounds.

The only pity was that the stock market was really not good now; otherwise, if it were listed at this moment, relying on the soaring reputation, it would not be difficult to jump into the circle of billionaires in one fell swoop.

However, Murphy was not greedy; this was already enough. There was no need to take too big a step; just move forward steadily.

With money, Murphy's research institute plan could finally be launched.

Thanks to the early preparations, a series of problems such as approval, land acquisition, and design were quickly completed. In the spring of 1988, the Umbrella Group Biotech R&D Base was officially founded and started construction.

Hertfordshire.

Murphy met Patrick, who was wearing a hard hat.

"How is the project progress?"

"Let's go, I'll take you up the mountain to see."

Patrick took Murphy up a hillside, and saw a construction site under construction in the middle of the wilderness below.

"A total of 970 acres (about 5,900 mu), divided into six zones. What is currently under construction is Zone 1, which has three main buildings. The largest area is the Dittany plantation, seventeen stories high, with a building area of about 19 acres (115 mu). The remaining two buildings are planned according to our original plan: one is the Dittany medicinal material cultivation optimization base, and one is the Dittany R&D center."

According to their previous plan, Zone 1 was mainly used for the cultivation and R&D of Cloud White Medicine.

The plantation adopted the vertical farm design suggested by Patrick. Currently, one was built to test the water. If the effect was verified, three more vertical farms would be built.

The role of the Dittany R&D center was to separate the core components of Dittany from Essence of Dittany, clarify its molecular biological mechanism, and study more efficient preparation methods.

This was a place that could produce Nobel-level achievements. Before it was even built, a dozen famous scholars wanted to join.

The purpose of the medicinal material cultivation optimization base was to study Dittany from the perspective of botany, and combine various breeding technologies such as gene editing, cell engineering, mutagenesis, and hybridization to optimize the effective components of Dittany and increase its yield.

In addition to Zone 1, in the future, Murphy also opened up research areas for Beauty Potion, Skele-Gro, Blood-Replenishing Potion, etc. The biological mechanism hidden behind each of these magical potions could be one or even several Nobel-level discoveries.

These were all treasures, and Murphy would never waste them easily.

In his vision, in the future, he would also establish a magic plant cultivation base to produce various magic plants in batches. He had even bought a lot of seeds. Once the Dittany cultivation was on the right track and the Umbrella Corporation had accumulated certain experience in magic plant cultivation, he could start.

At the same time, there must be a magical creature breeding center. There were so many magical creatures in the wizarding world. Not only could their body tissues be used as potion materials, but the magical abilities possessed by some magical creatures themselves were very worthy of study, which was another huge and rich treasure.

Of course, a Spell Research Institute must also be available. It's just that there was not as much Muggle technology accumulation that could be borrowed in this area as in potions, and if he wanted to let Muggle researchers participate, he would definitely have to carry out in-depth cooperation with wizards, which might contain significant risks. Murphy prepared to start on a small scale in the future and test the water before talking.

Thinking that there were countless exciting projects waiting for him to realize in the future, Murphy felt full of energy.

Isn't this more interesting than replying to those boring letters at the bullshit Pest Advisory Office?

"How long will it take for Zone 1 to be fully built?" Murphy asked.

"Now the land leveling work has been basically completed. Foundation pouring will take about a month, the main body three months, and pipeline decoration two months. If it's fast, it should be put into use in half a year."

Unlike ordinary simple factory buildings, whether it is the R&D center or the vertical plantation, they are high-rise vertical buildings with much more complex structures, and the amount of engineering even exceeds that of ordinary residential areas and office buildings.

Half a year is really very fast.

This is also the result of Umbrella sparing no cost.

But Murphy still felt it was a bit slow. Although he had the heart to use magic to speed up the progress, with his magic power, the role he could play in such large-scale construction projects was very limited, and thinking about it, he could only give up.

"Half a year is half a year. Before that, rent a few places first and set up the stage. For those research institutes that have been bought, stop other research that has no great progress first, divide the work for them, and all go to do Dittany research."

"For those scholars who wanted to come for research before, and those scholars on the list recommended by Rita, investigate and communicate. If their ability is about the same, hire them."

"Well, the company's administrative staff also needs to be expanded. It's just right to organize a large-scale recruitment," Patrick suggested.

"Do it! Do it boldly. If you have money, you have money. As long as you have ability, the salary can be opened. After spending this 100 million, I will go to sell some shares."

Patrick smiled. "It's as if our shares are Chinese cabbage."

"If it can't be exchanged for money, it's a piece of white paper, not even as good as Chinese cabbage." Murphy didn't care about this.

"By the way, there is one more thing. Since you want researchers to intervene in Dittany research, what are your considerations regarding confidentiality?"

Murphy frowned. "Indeed, this is a big problem."

It's not that he is afraid that the secret of the Essence of Dittany ingredients will leak to the Muggle world and be imitated, but mainly he is worried about the wizarding side.

"Sign a confidentiality agreement that can make them lose their fortune first, and I'll tell you when there is a better way."

For the research on Essence of Dittany, there shouldn't be any major results for a while, and this kind of confidentiality agreement is enough, but in the long run, he still needs to get a confidentiality-type magic, which is safer.

I wonder if that guy Wood has found any clues?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 38 =====