Before Li Zheng’s interview could be broadcast, Chen Xuhua announced his resignation in a press conference on Wednesday.
After hearing this news, Li Zheng locked himself in the lab for a day and a night. Although he knew in his heart that even if his talk show was broadcast, and the public opinions reversed, Chen Xuhua still couldn’t escape resigning.
Because society had rules, the hospital had a system, those who violated the rules of the system had to bear the consequences.
Liang Zhe came and met Li Zheng like that, his face was so dark that it seemed to drip ink, his body exuded the “I’m not happy” aura.
He frowned slightly, walked two steps forward, and looked at the coffee table that had two boxes of half-eaten noodles with a slightly disgusted expression. The two boxes of noodles were thrown into the garbage can at the door with pursed lips.
Li Zheng raised his eyelids slightly, he saw that it was Liang Zhe, and then lowered his head again.
“The production line has arrived, I’ve asked people to split it in the warehouse, you have time to contact China’s side.” Liang Zhe said.
Li Zheng nodded, “Got it.”
Liang Zhe’s frown became more prominent, he didn’t like this Li Zheng. This person should be confident, proud and glowing. Not sitting on the ground in a disheveled manner like this.
The struggle in his eyes flashed by, then he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, then sat on the ground like Li Zheng.
“Sad because of Chen Xuhua’s resignation?” Liang Zhe tried to recall the appearance of his psychiatrist when he talked to him, but without the slightest emotional ups and downs in his tone of voice and his blank expression, he really didn’t look like a psychiatrist.
“It is easy to solve the matter, if he wants to continue to be a doctor, the Liang family has a hospital. If he wants to change to another job, we happen to be short of people on hand.” Liang Zhe said.
Li Zheng looked up in surprise, “Why are you …… talking so much today?”
Liang Zhe ……
Although he was surprised at the number of words Liang Zhe said today, Liang Zhe’s words still opened up new ideas for Li Zheng. Yes, since Chen Xuhua was out of work, he could provide him with one, rather than Liang Zhe.
“Thanks, I’ll buy you dinner tonight.” Li Zheng patted his legs and tried to stand up from the ground.
But he sat on the ground for too long, his legs were slightly numb, and when he stood up too quickly his right leg went limp and he fell forward.
Liang Zhe was anxious and immediately reached out.
Li Zheng fell hard on Liang Zhe, his elbow dug into the unspeakable part of Liang Zhe. Liang Zhe’s face instantly became extremely red.
Li Zheng naturally understood the vulnerability of that part of a man, he jumped up violently.
He smiled awkwardly, “Sorry.”
Liang Zhe face twitched suspiciously, “It’s okay ……”
“Thanks.” Li Zheng said, and then saw with satisfaction that the tip of Liang Zhe’s ears turned a familiar pink color.
*.
The arrival of Mr. Smith from Mercer was on Thursday morning, and Li Zheng had just finished talking to Chen Xuhua, who said that he had been a doctor for half his life and had had enough of it and wanted to take a break. Li Zheng saw from this antibiotic incident that although Chen Xuhua said so, he liked to cure people, but this incident probably really broke his heart. So Li Zheng formally invited Chen Xuhua as the head of Li Zheng’s special disease research foundation, and at the same time made him responsible for the listing of a patent and the interface with Roche.
When Zheng Lingling informed him that there was a man calling himself Pete Smith who wanted to see him, Li Zheng’s first reaction was to call David. In his previous life, when various pharmaceutical companies came to his door, it was David who helped him get rid of them.
“Pete Smith? Mr. Smith of Mercer? He’s actually here in person because of the carbapenem antibiotics, and it looks like it’s true that Mercer has discovered a new antibiotic.” David exaggeratedly screamed out on the phone, “No, I have to report this news with the headquarters. Li, don’t be afraid, wait for me for half an hour, I’ll be right over.”
Li Zheng: …… I’m not afraid.
Li Zheng hung up the phone and stood up, “The executive president of Mercer East, is Dean Chen interested in accompanying me to meet with him?”
Chen Xuhua opened his mouth in shock and nodded at him.
Li Zheng smiled at his response.
“It’s a great honor.” Chen Xuhua’s heart was both happy and somewhat complicated, as a doctor, he couldn’t help but deal with pharmaceutical companies, he had seen countless pharmaceutical representatives, but meeting the president of the pharmaceutical company was his first time.
He didn’t expect that after he resigned, he would be on a new level in life.
Li Zheng and Chen Xuhua walked quickly towards the entrance of the laboratory, Smith and Kent stood at the entrance with stony faces, exchanging words quickly in English, and when they saw Li Zheng and the others coming, a polite smile was quickly put on their faces.
“Mr. Li Zheng?” Smith looked at the young lad in front of him and spoke with some uncertainty, Li Zheng was even younger than he thought.
Westerners generally looked more mature than Easterners, to the Westerners, Li Zheng looked 13 or 14 years old, which was really a bit too young.
Li Zheng smiled faintly and extended his hand, “Hello, Mr. Smith, Mr. Kent.” In his previous life, Li Zheng only had a few encounters with Smith, but Kent, he had dealt with him a few times and was impressed.
“A very professional laboratory.” Kent was slightly surprised when he saw the scene inside lab #2 through the glass window. The environment of Li Zheng’s lab actually had a little elegance of a top international lab. His eyes slightly swept over the laboratory management ledger hanging on the laboratory wall, the suspicion in his heart went down a lot, maybe …… it was really just a coincidence?
The team had worked hard for nine years to make something that someone had made in a few days, which was a great insult to Kent. After getting the news that the suspected carbapenem antibiotic had been used, Kent’s first reaction was that his team had a traitor.
He checked the entire team inside and out, and then carefully studied Li Zheng’s information, the facts told him that his team and Li Zheng didn’t have a trace of contact, was there really a genius in this world? Mr. Kent’s mood was very complicated.
“Thank you.” Li Zheng smiled haughtily and accepted his compliment.
They went to the rest area and sat down. Smith whispered with Kent, and then smiled and spoke, “This gentleman is?” They didn’t want too many people to know about the matter of the patent rights of carbapenem antibiotics, so the two didn’t even look for a middleman, and directly went to Li Zheng’s laboratory.
“This is the former director of Mary’s Hospital, and now the head of Li Zheng’s Special Disease Research Foundation.” Li Zheng introduced.
Smith and Kent looked at each other, a trace of surprise flashed in their eyes, Mary’s Hospital incident was seriously studied, naturally they knew that Chen Xuhua played an extremely important role in it, they admired this Oriental dean, if he was replaced by them, they knew they wouldn’t risk going to jail to save a group of patients who they didn’t know if they could be saved.
“It’s an honor to meet you.” Kent extended his hand while slightly bending down.
Chen Xuhua was stunned, he hurriedly extended his hand and shook Kent’s, “I am also very honored to meet you both.”
They exchanged pleasantries, then Mr. Smith gave a wink to Kent, who nodded and took out a few documents from his bag.
He put the documents on the coffee table and then moved over in the direction of Li Zheng.
“Mr. Li Zheng, this is the patent document for a drug called Carbapenem Antibiotics of our company, as well as the approval letter for the marketing of the drug.” Kent observed Li Zheng’s reaction without blinking.
But to his disappointment, Li Zheng looked calm and did not even change his expression when he saw the words “Carbapenem Antibiotics”.
The company’s patent document was opened by Chen Xuhua, who saw the word “Carbapenem Antibiotics” in it.
“It seems that Mr. Li Zheng isn’t very surprised?” Smith couldn’t help but speak up.
Li Zheng patted Chen Xuhua’s shoulder soothingly, then smiled and put the patent file back on the table, “Well, I heard someone mention that Mercer may have an antibiotic against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Xu Keqiang, Mr. Kent you may have heard of this name.”
A look of bewilderment appeared on Kent’s face as he tried to think of something and suddenly slapped his head, “Jimmy Xu, Thomas’ student! He called me once!”
“Yes, if you had granted his request, perhaps my laboratory would not have given birth to a drug similar to Carbapenem Antibiotics.” Li Zheng shrugged his shoulders and said.
Mr. Kent’s face was green and white all of a sudden, and then a disheveled look appeared on his face.
Smith drily coughed, “Mr. Li Zheng, although our company’s drug is still in the market review stage, the patent is also still in the confidentiality period, but yours infringes our patent.”
“The fact that Mr. Kent and I chose to visit in person instead of asking the legal team to send a lawyer’s letter already shows the sincerity of our Mercer East. Be aware that ……”
“No lawyer’s letter was sent because you know that even if it was, it would be useless.” Before Smith could finish his words, David came in through the door whistling.
He also carried a fragrant roast chicken in his hand, wrapped in greaseproof paper, some of which was exposed and roasted to a golden brown, it looked very tempting.
“Oh, dear Li, I brought you your favorite roast chicken. It’s still hot, so maybe you can provide the utensils.” David ignored Smith and Kent’s ugly stares and sat down on the sofa next to Li Zheng.
The corners of Li Zheng’s mouth twitched as he looked at David who was fiddling with the roast chicken like no one else was next to him, he helplessly held his forehead.
He got up and went to the test area to get some disposable rubber gloves and handed them to the people present, “I haven’t bought the cutlery yet, so let’s make do.”
David hurriedly took the gloves, smiling as he put it on, then he tore the whole chicken into two halves, he pulled off the chicken’s right leg and gave it to Li Zheng, pulled off a wing, handed it to Chen Xuhua, then he looked up at the dark faces of Smith and Kent, he hesitated for a few seconds, then handed the other wing to Kent.
Mr. Smith’s gaze swept over the remaining chicken leg and his face eased up slightly.
David smiled at him, then pulled off the left leg of the chicken hard and stuffed it into his mouth, then he tore off the butt of the chicken and said to Mr. Smith with a smile, “That’s all that’s left.”
Smith was furious, he stood up sharply, his fingers trembling, and pointed at David, “David Andorio! Even if Robert were here, he wouldn’t dare talk to me like that!”
Mercer East’s chicken butt terrain in several top companies wasn’t a secret, during a certain sales channel communication, they picked away the value of several markets, and left a small market space in a difficult to develop area to Mercer East, it was jokingly referred to as chicken butt.
This incident had been Mr. Smith’s only black spot in his career history, but David mentioned it, of course, Smith was angry.
David put the chicken leg on the greaseproof paper, then he clasped his hands in front and smiled at Pete Smith.
“I just want to remind you to do things by the rules, don’t look at Li’s strength alone and try bully him. He is an excellent partner for us at Roche, and we are happy to have a share in the new antibiotics.” David spoke to the Swiss headquarters on the phone before he arrived, and when Mr. Robert received the news, he couldn’t help but laugh on the spot.
He instructed David to disgust Smith, he had been uncomfortable with Mercer’s tyranny for a long time.
“It’s a fact that Li Zheng’s lab infringed on my company’s patent rights! My patent document was granted in 1976, and his discovery of carbapenem antibiotics is just a matter of a few days!”
Li Zheng leaned back slightly, looked at the seemingly exasperated Mr. Smith with a smile, and spoke: “Wait, I didn’t make carbapenem antibiotics for profit, this shouldn’t be considered a patent infringement. And …… I seem to recall a New York agreement signed within your pharmaceutical company, with Merck Sharp & Dohme as an active proponent at the time, so what? Treating private labs differently?”
This time, even David also looked at Li Zheng with stunned eyes, he felt that this little genius he found was getting more and more mysterious, he was comparable world’s top pharmaceutical industry bull, and it seemed that Li Zheng seemed to be very clear about their crooked pharmaceutical companies.
Sometimes even he himself didn’t quite understand things, Li Zheng actually understood more than he did. For example, the New York Agreement, which was told to him by Mr. Robert not long ago.
The New York Agreement, which was the verbal agreement of the top international pharmaceutical companies, was the standard of handling when the patent ownership was unclear between the two parties, or when there was a dispute over the patent. Although Carbapenem Antibiotics patent was registered before, he only registered the core patent in order to keep it confidential and only in the United States. If Li Zheng had the intention to fight, the winner wasn’t certain.
In this case, with the content of the New York agreement, Mercer should take the initiative to share a piece of cake with Li Zheng’s laboratory. But Smith naturally didn’t want this result.
If there was no David present, Smith could have denied it, but it was a person from Roche who was present, and this person was still the David who was bent on seeing Mercer become a joke.
“Mr. Li Zheng, the content of the New York agreement is only for the parties present at the time.” Smith’s attitude was clear, a civilian laboratory naturally had to be treated differently.
“Oh~” Li Zheng shrugged indifferently, “OK, I still have some insights into drug improvement.”
The smugness on Smith’s face froze for a moment. Yes, in front of him was not the old foxes who he usually fought with, but a genius, a real pharmaceutical genius.
In just less than six months, his hands had given birth to two drugs, which was already a very rare thing in the history of pharmaceuticals, perhaps …… he really had a way to improve the carbapenem antibiotics.
If it was successfully marketed soon, and Li Zheng’s improved drug came out ……
Smith could hardly imagine the scene at that time.
“Mr. Li Zheng …… I think we can still discuss it.”
David looked at the pale Smith, and then looked at the relaxed Li Zheng, and gnawed hard on a bite of chicken leg, it seemed that there was nothing for him to do?
Smith stood up and went to the balcony to make two phone calls, and when he returned, his face was already full of smiles, he took out a piece of white paper, in less than half an hour, he wrote a full page.
Li Zheng’s gaze swept over the contents of the white paper, the depression in his heart finally eased a lot. Mercer was willing to give half of the profits to Li Zheng’s lab every year until the expiration of the patent period.
For Li Zheng’s laboratory, a private laboratory, this clause was already very generous.
“What do you think?” Smith said with a smile. His body seemed to inadvertently block David’s line of sight, causing David to scratch his ears in curiosity.
Seeing Smith finally show sincerity, Li Zheng finally revealed a real smile, in front of Smith’s stunned and angry gaze, the white paper was shredded and thrown into the trash.
“Actually …… I have no intention of registering a patent, let alone sharing it.” Li Zheng considered himself a person who respected intellectual property rights, people had worked hard for nine years to research, and it wasn’t fair for him to share the profits out of thin air by virtue of his latter-day memory.
If it wasn’t for Xu Mingsheng, he definitely wouldn’t touch it, it already had a patent, his life plan was very clear, he would only used patents that hadn’t been researched, or hadn’t begun being studied. According to his own words, this was called the optimal allocation of social resources.
The anger in Smith’s eyes disappeared, it was difficult to hide his shock, Kent was also stunned, the pharmaceutical bull apparently didn’t expect Li Zheng to have such an attitude.
As for David, he spat out the chicken leg meat with saliva and sprayed the whole thing on Pete Smith’s custom-made suit.
“David Andorio! You b*stard!” Smith’s was so angry that he wanted to kill someone.