Chapter 809

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Protagonist:

Fang Ziye

The handover had not yet formally begun, yet the doctor's office was already packed with white coats; Ceng Duoqin's near-fall was witnessed by everyone, and their expressions varied.

It was quite obvious that Professor Ceng Duoqin, who was walking side by side with Fang Ziye, had been startled by Fang Ziye, but Fang Ziye's voice was very low, making it hard for outsiders to hear the specific content of what Fang Ziye said.

After steadying himself, Ceng Duoqin's gaze flowed over Fang Ziye with exceptional complexity; at this moment, even if his neural synapses had crashed, he still could not figure out what Fang Ziye had said.

Turn generic drugs into brand-name drugs — is that something a normal person would say?

After composing himself, Ceng Duoqin pulled Fang Ziye to a corner, glanced at the few people with his eyes, and Hu Qingyuan and Ceng Duoqin's student Dai Zhusheng, who were closer, hurriedly retreated.

"Fang Ziye, what did you just say? Did I not hear clearly? Why are you trying to get involved in that stinking ditch?" Ceng Duoqin's question was very clear.

So-called generic drugs are same-kind drugs manufactured by imitating brand-name drugs; generally their efficacy is quite a bit worse than the brand-name drug's efficacy, but they win on cheap price and not requiring excessive R&D investment.

They belong to the category low-end pharmaceutical companies use to pad their performance.

To manufacture generic drugs, one point that must be guaranteed is that the brand-name drug's twenty-year patent period has expired.

The medical market is this big; companies with even a bit of dream would not think of going to make generic drugs.

Currently, only India has issued a "patent invalidation" regulation; any brand-name drug will be directly genericized in that country.

Fang Ziye's current research accumulation and research talent completely have no necessity to waste time imitating this kind of drug.

Upon hearing this, Fang Ziye smiled faintly and said: "Professor Ceng, this generic drug industry is not a stinking ditch."

"If done well, it is a grand plan benefiting the country and the people."

Most of Eastern Han's pharmaceutical companies do not do original work, only imitation; this is also one of the reasons brand-name prices are beaten down.

"But doing this, is it useful for your personal growth?" Ceng Duoqin continued to counter-question.

Fang Ziye knew the answer; it was definitely useless.

Going to imitate generic drugs basically makes it impossible to own your own patents, unless you do secondary innovation on the existing drug; the secondary innovation parts can separately apply for patents.

But this is even harder.

However, for Fang Ziye, he had previously refused the "decision" to go to Jingdu, which amounted to temporarily cutting off certain paths.

Now Fang Ziye is already an Associate Professor; promoting to Professor only requires internal evaluation within Hubei Province, and no one would be hateful enough to make Fang Ziye unable to even promote to Professor level.

Since reaching Professor is the summit, then what benefit is there for Fang Ziye to produce even more research output now, when the upper limit has already been framed to death?

"It is naturally useless; but since no matter how you do it it's useless, why not seek a thought breakthrough?"

"Currently, there are already many drugs past their patent protection period, but drugs that can be genericized and reach therapeutic efficacy are not many."

"They still rely on imports!"

After Fang Ziye finished speaking, he smiled again and said: "Professor Ceng, weren't many people saying before that the clinical work I'm doing now are all rich-people diseases? Having done so many cases, I should also do something for patients without money."

"Anyway, it's all spending time."

Researching new disease types' treatments is indeed a good thing for research, but when a new disease type's treatment plan just comes out, only a small portion of people with relatively thick family backgrounds can afford the treatment costs.

For example, functional reconstruction surgery; for example, functional regeneration surgery.

Fang Ziye can do the surgeries, but the overall cost of the surgeries is not low!

Not all patients suffering from this kind of disease can afford to pay.

"What do you mean by this?" Ceng Duoqin heard the implication in Fang Ziye's words and hurriedly pressed.

"Nothing, Teacher Ceng, let's start the handover... it's also time..." Fang Ziye did not continue speaking further.

His own future being temporarily interrupted was his own choice; it was because a big shot got angry.

Fang Ziye cannot afford to provoke them, so naturally he can afford to hide.

Fang Ziye's matter of returning to the ward was decided long ago, so today there was an arrangement for the 'Functional Recovery Surgery' that only Fang Ziye could operate.

Fang Ziye did not delay time; he didn't even give the post-return preaching speech; after the duty doctor and on-duty nurse finished the handover, Fang Ziye said: "If there's nothing special, let's do ward rounds early; no delaying time."

Ceng Duoqin and Wang Zongkai both stood up and led the team out the door.

Associate Professor Tang Sai was the first to lean over, smiling as he reported: "Director Fang, your return is really too good; recently we few sleep feeling much more at ease."

Fang Ziye smiled lightly in reply: "Teacher Tang, surely not that much?"

"Truly that much. You don't believe me, ask Li Nuo and Qin Geluo?" Tang Sai looked toward Li Nuo and Qin Geluo.

Both old brothers nodded; Qin Geluo even put his arm around Fang Ziye's shoulder and said: "Ziye, not deliberately blowing smoke for you, leading this group is still too hard."

"And after you left, leading the group, the difficulty went against heaven."

"Forget it, don't mention it; your return is good."

"Three surgeries scheduled today: one Functional Recovery Surgery, one Hemi-Hip Arthroplasty, one Fracture Surgery."

"For the latter two, do you want to demonstrate and teach a bit?"

These are all the tail-end work of the patients Tang Sai and the others admitted after Fang Ziye left; patients admitted naturally have to be done.

Fang Ziye shook his head: "Hip Arthroplasty Professor Tang can complete perfectly; Fracture Surgery you and Master Nuo can both handle; why would I mix in that much?"

"I still have a bit of business later."

"Let's finish the Functional Recovery Surgery first; you didn't admit spinal cord injury patients for me at the first time, so it's still the few Big Brothers who took care of it."

Tang Sai replied helplessly: "Spinal cord injury patients, without your nod, who among us would dare admit them? That's suicide?"

This kind of patient, only Fang Ziye can operate, and might even need Professor Wang Ou from Spine Surgery to coordinate the table.

Now Fang Ziye is not here; even if Professor Wang Ou came, it would be useless.

If Professor Wang Ou could lead the team to open the table, then Professor Ceng Duoqin previously would not have faced so much pressure.

Using one Functional Recovery Surgery as the procedure to return to the OR and find surgical hand feel is quite comfortable!

In just two and a half hours, Fang Ziye delegated the remaining operations.

Seeing that his student Hu Qingyuan could also complete part of the tendon repair, Fang Ziye was even more overjoyed.

Hu Qingyuan had truly been in contact with clinical work for only half a year; his progress in suturing technique was extremely fast, and he could already complete part of simple tendon repair — this was already comparable to the level of senior master's students or even doctoral students in hand surgery.

Moreover, only master's and doctoral students with relatively good talent could reach this step.

Of course, it was not particularly outrageous either; back then Lan Tianluo and Luo Tingzhu could also reach this level very early, it just took them a few months longer than Hu Qingyuan.

After leaving the operating room, Fang Ziye went out alone.

After hesitating for a moment, he directly chose to call Chen Guangbai.

Chen Guangbai was only a traditional Chinese medicine doctor and did not need surgery, so after the phone rang for half a minute, the other party answered.

"Ziye, what are you doing? I'm still attending a case discussion; I just finished a five-minute speech. If you had called a bit earlier, I wouldn't have been able to come out." Chen Guangbai said.

Fang Ziye said: "Uncle Chen, is Uncle Yao Guang still in Han City?"

"I have some rather important matters to discuss with him."

Before, when Fang Ziye wasn't on leave, Yao Guang was stationed in Han City; but during Fang Ziye's leave, Yao Guang would not stay long in Han City.

He heard he went to Jingdu, then went overseas to travel.

Yao Guang is currently a senior executive of Guangbai Group, the Chief Technical Engineer, mainly responsible for overall R&D; his time is relatively free.

"I'm no longer serving in the company, just a director in name only; I'm not too clear on Yao Guang's specific whereabouts."

"But I can help you ask; you first say what exactly the matter is..." Chen Guangbai said.

"I want to discuss the imitation procedures for several drugs with Chief Engineer Yao..." Fang Ziye replied.

"Imitation medicine? You want to do imitation medicine?" Chen Guangbai's tone was exceptionally astonished!

"Could it be because of that matter about you that was inquired about?"

Chen Guangbai wasn't the one who sent a message to Fang Ziye saying Fang Ziye basically had no chance at an Academician Nomination for the next few years, but this information, Chen Guangbai also received this morning.

It was told to him by someone from the Logistics Department of Enshi Yangyuan.

"Uncle Chen, yes, and not entirely."

"Move the extreme, think of stillness; I've been feeling quite bored recently, and last year I attended a seminar, where it was mentioned that imitation drug R&D is also one of the key projects, an important livelihood project."

"And the imitation drugs I want to develop should have pretty good efficacy." Fang Ziye replied.

Actually, with his current research level, not doing original innovation but thinking of imitation is simply wasteful destruction!

But doing this indeed benefits the country and the people!

Very early on, Deng Yong asked Fang Ziye a question: do you ultimately want to be an Academician Doctor or the people's doctor.

Fang Ziye's answer at that time chose the latter.

However, Fang Ziye is not an arrogant purist. Developing new surgical techniques, developing treatments for new disease types — for the development of world medicine, these are extremely beneficial, standing at the very forefront of world research!

Can infinitely accelerate Eastern Han's comprehensive level in a certain specialty field.

Moreover, if under such circumstances one can simultaneously become an Academician and gain honors, Fang Ziye would not deliberately give up or refuse.

Fang Ziye is essentially a person who won't lift a finger without benefit; he's not that arrogant.

But?

After hearing this, Chen Guangbai froze for a moment, his breathing becoming rapid: "Fang Ziye, you mean you have the capability to, based on papers published by pharmaceutical companies, after debugging, achieve efficacy possibly better than the original drug?"

"This is impossible, right?"

"This is absolutely impossible!"

This is an absolutely impossible thing.

But, compared to this matter —

Fang Ziye previously forcibly pieced together consistent project results for Han Yuanxiao across different projects; if outsiders knew, they would find it even more absurd and bizarre!

What is the concept of forcibly piecing something together by changing the environment?

To put it plainly, this kind of capability is not less than letting a person with very ordinary qualifications, through effort, easily test into Huaqing and Kyoto University.

"Uncle Chen, things depend on human effort; if guessed out, there is a certain probability."

"Since there is probability, there does not exist impossible!"

"Any drug, the genuine product is only the current best efficacy, not the absolute best efficacy."

"Drugs also continuously update and iterate; for example antibiotics..."

"I feel that some classic tumor drugs, it's also time for them to update and iterate." Fang Ziye said quite confidently.

If developing new tumor targeted drugs is a brand new forward direction, then restructuring the structure and efficacy of existing drugs is a slightly detoured small path.

The prospects and upper limit are very limited.

"Uncle Chen, do you feel this approach is unreliable?"

"I feel it's fine; we can even not reference their pharmaceutical processes, and fine-tune the drug structure."

"The reason imitation drugs are difficult is actually the difficulty in reaction and preparation conditions, such as temperature, process, etc.!"

"Besides focusing on the key core finished product chemical formula, we can also seek some drugs similar to it."

"For example non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, according to their different chemical structures, n non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be divided into formic acid class, acetic acid class, propionic acid class, Coarse Food class, xibu class, pyrazolone class, etc..."

Chen Guangbai is not a research novice; hearing this he said: "Ziye, if you have this kind of capability, why set your sights on imitation medicine?"

"Isn't this using a cannon to shoot a mosquito?"

"Imitation drugs all have genuine versions; it's just a matter of spending more."

"If you focus on disease types with no medicine available and new drug development, that is the right path. For you personally."

Chen Guangbai immediately reacted: "I understand; this news still affects you, so you want to lie flat?"

Fang Ziye heard this and laughed: "Uncle Chen, this counts as seeking welfare for more patients; you say I'm lying flat, if I complain to Old Doctor Chen, he'll scold you!"

"And who says improving the structure of existing drugs isn't research?"

"Do you want me to find a pharmacy professor to discuss with you, Uncle Chen?"

Medicine is vast!

Clinical medicine and pharmacy are two completely different disciplines.

Pharmacy is also divided into different major directions such as applied pharmacology and R&D pharmacology...

"No need!" Chen Guangbai rejected Fang Ziye's unreliable proposal.

"Ziye, then you've decided, you're going to take this route for the next few years?"

"Once this kind of choice is made, it must be seen through to the end. Otherwise the early investment might go up in smoke." Chen Guangbai reminded him, hoping Fang Ziye would consider cautiously.

"Uncle Chen, actually, you don't need to think of me as too noble either. My choice also has selfish motives in it." Fang Ziye replied.

Chen Guangbai pondered slightly upon hearing this: "Is it that 'ALS' case you recommended?"

Enshi Yangyuan, they don't ask for detailed names, so even though Chen Guangbai knew Luo Pan's name, he didn't point it out.

"Yes! ~"

"To deal with a completely new disease type, relying purely on innovation is still too difficult, I'm afraid Luo Shu can't wait! ~" Fang Ziye said.

Luo Pan is Fang Ziye's father-in-law, mentioning Luo Shu is not a violation for him.

Chen Guangbai couldn't mention it: "Suit yourself, since you have reasons both public and private, I won't persuade you further."

"In this life, no matter how good the talent, it's absolutely impossible to have smooth sailing all the way."

"No matter how harmonious and sensible the family, we also need to devote some time and energy to our family."

"Fang Ziye, according to our Enshi hometown customs, once you're married you're considered established in career, so outsiders' gaze at you will be different from before."

"Follow your heart. I don't have absolute teaching authority in the group right now, but I can report your suggestion upward."

"With your first reason, persuading them should be no problem."

No matter how details change, the grand plan of benefiting the country and the people will never change.

If Eastern Han can openly produce more 'generic drugs', and even make the efficacy better, then no one can reverse this situation.

Fang Ziye thought for a moment, then said: "Uncle Chen, I still want to propose one thing to you, that is, I don't plan to hide this from the patent-holding company."

"On the contrary, I might contact the drug patent-holding company in advance, and after obtaining authorization, then optimize the generic production."

"This way it's a win-win situation, and I'm not willing to create any conflicts of interest."

"After all, from our perspective, as long as it benefits our country's patients; from the company's interest perspective, their drugs can be updated and replaced, they're willing too."

"After all, multinational companies' market share is that large! ~"

Chen Guangbai took a deep breath: "Fang Ziye, don't know if marriage can make a person more mature, but one can see your thinking has become more and more seasoned now."

"Capital isn't actually that scary; on the contrary, if you can make capital profitable, you're the big boss!"

"Grasp this point of capital seeking profit, with your current capability and influence, you indeed won't face any danger."

"Give advance notice, make contact for cooperation, once those multinational companies see the benefit, they might even proactively release some 'patents' to you, hand over confidential things to you!"

Chen Guangbai has done business, he knows the main purpose of company operations is for-profit, no matter which aspect, if it can increase their own company product's competitiveness, defeat other competitors in the market, it's all worth investing in!

The pharmaceutical industry speaks with efficacy, determines market share by results.

Only on the premise of efficacy being nearly identical does the saying of dividing market share apply; otherwise it's updating and replacement!

"If done well enough, this is also a smooth path!!" Chen Guangbai now also cannot predict Fang Ziye's future.

Because the route Fang Ziye walks is also somewhat similar to his own father's, unknown endpoint, not quite the same as the traditional doctor's path.

A proposal is a proposal, after the proposal, there are still many procedures to go through.

It's not that you want to do it today and can start tomorrow.

With such a large research project framework, the early preparation, writing of planning documents etc. might take half a year or even a year; even if Fang Ziye can advance this time, it's not something achievable in a day or two!

After hanging up the phone, Fang Ziye's mood was very calm.

Great Physician of the Nation, benefiting the country and the people, not necessarily achieving merit in one's lifetime, the benefit lasts a thousand autumns!

Medicine itself has no good or bad distinction.

Depends on how you use it, how to use it, why you use it.

The essence of medicine is to treat disease, not a commodity, but manufacturing new medicine requires cost investment.

If there's no official institution to endorse and front the funds, then there must be profit to be made for anyone to do R&D.

"Neither benchmark yourself as high and mighty, nor belittle yourself as sinister and cunning."

"After all, having been to Enshi once, I walked out from a county town, I've seen many patients with no money to treat illness."

"I, Fang Ziye, cannot change medical insurance policy, can only take another path."

"Xiangya Hospital's Professor Zhou Yan walks his path, I have my path..." Fang Ziye stood in the new campus pedestrian corridor, hands behind his back, with a calm mindset strolling around the outpatient clinic and emergency department. (Chapter End)