Chapter 470: Toast or Forfeit?

Blecher, the famous father of prohormone, was sitting in his office, looking at the latest quarterly financial statements.

The situation was not optimistic. His company’s loss increased again during the last quarter.

In industrial production, quantitative change would cause qualitative change. In any industrial product, the cost of production would be reduced as long as it was produced in enough quantity, and the same was true with drugs. The per unit costs of producing one million pills and one hundred million pills were totally different. If nothing else, the costs of research and development, shared evenly across one million pills and one hundred million pills, would create a hundredfold difference.

Mass production always belonged to big pharmaceutical groups. Small pharmaceutical companies like Blecher’s were different from them. They couldn’t mass produce drugs. In terms of producing the same drug, the cost of small company like Blecher’s would be much higher, which would be less competitive in the market.

Therefore, Blecher’s pharmaceutical company made money mainly by producing a small number of special-interest patented drugs. These drugs were profitable, but with less demand, so big companies would not set up a production line for it. What’s more, research and development costs were also needed in drug production. A single drug would sometimes require several patents. Therefore, it was not worthwhile for big companies to invest precious resources into this type of development.

This also gave small pharmaceutical companies like Blecher’s enough space to survive. In fact, Blecher did have some advantages, for he had plenty of patents. His pharmaceutical company only produced the drugs, of which the patent was contained by him, which also could save a lot in patent costs for his company.

Blecher had actually studied the subjects of these patents in the 1990s, when he was a scientist specializing in the study of prohormones. At that time, he performed experiments on athletes immorally, and he quickly made impressive achievements. He also succeeded in turning these achievements into economic gains.

During the last decade, Blecher didn’t get any notable research results. Blecher had been removed from the science community because of his human experiment scandal. His reputation was so bad that nobody would talk to him. Even the lowest-level researcher would not be willing to work with Blecher.

No matter how great Blecher was, he couldn’t operate the whole lab. As the saying goes, one can’t make brick without straw. Therefore, Blecher had to shut his lab, stop scientific research, and manage his pharmaceutical company intently.

Blecher was indeed a genius. His company soon became famous just relying on the savings in patent costs.

But in recent years, Blecher had encountered a problem.

The patent protection duration for an invention was 20 years in America, but Blecher’s patents were basically all received in the 1990s. Now his patents would expire soon, which meant that other pharmaceutical companies could produce the same drugs and ignore Blecher’s patent.

Blecher could outshine others in the market with his patents, but now he lost his advantage. With more and more competitors, the price would fall sharply. Blecher’s pharmaceutical company had no advantage in production cost, which naturally would cause a huge loss.

Blecher hadn’t performed any new research for years, so his company hadn’t launched any new products, which directly put Blecher’s company in trouble. This was really successful for patent and failed for patent too.

Naturally, Blecher would not just wait and do nothing. He wouldn’t let his years of effort be lost. He had to save himself. The best way to save himself was obviously to launch a new product. However, in pharmaceutical production, a new product undoubtedly meant a great deal of research.

In recent years, Blecher had been secretly funding many biological labs. Although he was removed from the scientific community, that didn’t mean other scientists would refuse him when he could provide funding. No matter how high a scientist’s integrity was, he still had to eat. No one wouldn’t need money.

People would beat a rat in the street, but if the rat carried carats of diamonds, the first reaction would not be to beat the rat, but to lure the rat and take the diamonds.

Unfortunately, all the labs funded by Blecher didn’t achieve any research results he wanted.

It was true for scientific research. You couldn’t always get payback on your work. It was common to gain nothing after huge investments.

When Blecher felt hopeless, a message from Franklin’s Lab rekindled Blecher’s hope.

A new drug appeared!

As the father of prohormone, Blecher knew what a new drug meant. Blecher had become a multimillionaire just for studying prohormone and its derivatives years ago. If a new drug existed, it would probably mean hundreds of millions of dollars.

The main purpose of a drug was not its use for athletes, but the biotechnology behind it. Maybe it was a new synthetic technology, or a new extraction technology and hundreds of derivatives. If there only existed one derivative for pharmacy, it would bring huge wealth.

Blecher believed that if he could get that new drug, he could make a comeback. Not only could he save his company, he could also make a lot of money.

According to Franklin’s Lab, the new drug was owned by a Chinese coach.

Therefore, Blecher started to investigate Dai Li and his training center, but several months later, he still got nothing for all his efforts and the huge amount of money he had paid. The research company he hired couldn’t find any clue, and Franklin’s Lab didn’t find anything useful in the athletes’ samples either.

Blecher had thought that there was no new drug at all, and that Franklin’s Lab and Coach Sebastian had made a mistake. The fact that an athlete regained his competitive state from his youth might just be a special case.

However, one athlete after another became powerful again and showed world-class performance after Dai Li’s training, which meant it wasn’t just a special case. It also made Blecher believe the existence of such a new drug. What’s more, he was more certain that the new drug was his only hope.

…

Looking at the quarterly financial statements and the loss figures on it, Blecher felt his heart bleeding. If the loss continued, his company would go bankrupt soon.

Franklin’s Lab received so much funding from me, but they couldn’t even detect the new drug. They were so unreliable at the critical moment. And that Coach Sebastian is also unreliable. Although he is the chief coach of the national team, I don’t think he can get that new drug from the athletes.

It seems that I should rely on myself! Blecher heaved a deep sigh. He put down the financial statements and started to consider carefully.

The athletes who used the drug must be insiders. But they just use it passively, and the initiative is held by the supplier of the drug, which means that Chinese Coach Dai Li is the core leader of this event.

Therefore, it’s just a waste of time and vigor to investigate those athletes. I’d better contact Coach Li directly. Maybe I just complicated this before. I might as well give the money to Coach Li directly rather than spend money and time on hiring a research company. It’s much simpler to buy it directly!

…

The girl at the reception desk stopped Dai Li as soon as he entered the gate.

“Boss, there is a Mr. Derrickson calling to make an appointment to see you,” said the girl.

“Derrickson?” Dai Li thought carefully and went on, “I don’t know him. Is he an athlete? Does he want to train here?”

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“According to Mr. Derrickson’s self-introduction, he is not an athlete but a representative of a pharmaceutical company,” responded the girl.

“For nutrition promotion again? Hand it to Randy. He negotiates the products.” Obviously Dai Li was not interested in representatives of a pharmaceutical company.

“I have informed Mr. Blake, and he also spoke with Mr. Derrickson by phone. But Mr. Derrickson wanted to see you,” continued the girl.

Dai Li nodded. “Well, make an appointment for me.”

…

Only Derrickson and Dai Li were in the reception room of the training center.

Derrickson pushed a check to Dai Li and said, “Coach Li, please don’t refuse it so quickly. Look at the check first. We are very sincere.”

With a glimpse of the seven-digit figure on the check, Dai Li was shocked.

This pharmaceutical company is really willing to spend money, Dai Li thought.

“Many people will not earn so much in their whole lives,” Derrickson said. “Coach Li, you only need to give me ten grams of that new drug that you have. This check is yours. I will never disclose the deal between us after leaving here. You don’t need to take any risk.”

Dai Li sighed reluctantly. “I’ve told you, we don’t have any illicit drugs here, and I’ve never used a drug on athletes.”

Derrickson, however, ignored Dai Li’s explanation and kept saying, “It seems that you aren’t satisfied with the figure on the check. How about this. You just offer your price, and I will see if I have the right to accept. Even if it is beyond my authority, I will report it to my boss. We can negotiate the price.”

“I really don’t have anything here you want. I repeat again, I’ve never used any illicit drugs,” Dai Li explained again.

“Coach Li, my boss is really sincere. If you don’t think it proper to talk about the price directly, we can also discuss about the matter of sharing. You give the new drug to us and we’ll take the research. If we achieve the patent and turn it into money, we can give you a bonus. Coach Li, this is the last concession we can make,” Derrickson said with an honest face.

Did I speak in English just now? He doesn’t seem to understand what I said. It’s like casting pearls before swine. Dai Li didn’t think he could communicate with Derrickson normally. He already had the intention to see him off.

…

Derrickson walked out of Dai Li’s training center with an unhappy look on his face. He took out his cell phone and dialed Blecher’s number.

Soon Blecher was on the line. “How’s it going?”

“He refused it,” said Derrickson.

“Why? Did you tell him all our offers?” Blecher asked at once.

“Yes, I did. He refused everything, including the matter of profit sharing,” responded Derrickson.

“Isn’t our offer high enough? This guy is too greedy! What on earth does he want?” Blecher asked angrily.

“He didn’t quote a price at all. He just refused it directly,” said Derrickson.

“He isn’t willing to talk about it, right?” Blecher became angrier. He repressed his anger and asked in a low voice, “Did you tape your conversation?”

“According to your instructions, I taped all the conversations. However, unlike our previous plan, Dai Li has always denied using drugs. So there is nothing substantive in the recording. We can’t threaten him with the recording.” Derrickson went on, “Unless we edit the recording.”

“That doesn’t work. With today’s technology, a computer only needs one second to identify whether a recording is edited or not.” Blecher heaved a deep sigh and continued, “Forget it. Come back first. I’ll see what else I can do.”

Putting down his cell phone, Blecher sat alone in his executive chair.

In Blecher’s view, his offer was high enough.

If Dai Li wanted cash, Blecher directly offered a seven-digit figure and indicated that it was also negotiable.

If he wanted long-term income, Blecher offered revenue sharing of the research results, which was even unavailable for research scientists.

Blecher had thought that with such a good offer, Dai Li absolutely would accept it and give him the new drug. However, he just refused and stated that he didn’t own any new drug at all.

I thought the worst result would be that he would ask a price so high I couldn’t accept, then I would threaten him with the recording to force him to lower his price. I didn’t expect that he wouldn’t admit it at all. He just closed the door of the negotiation. That is to say, there is nothing to talk about. You just refused a toast only to drink a forfeit. You push me to take plan B.

Blecher’s eyes were cold suddenly.

The next second, Blecher stood up and walked to the wall.

An oil painting was hung on the wall. Blecher took it down, revealing the safe behind it. Blecher input the password and used his fingerprint to unlock it. The safe behind it opened with a click.

Blecher took out a small card, which contained a phone number on it.

Blecher took a deep breath and dialed the number on it.

The phone connected quickly.

“Hi, Leon, this is Blecher. As I mentioned to you last time, I need a few men and one expert in interrogation.”