After being fired, I became the light of medicine

Chapter 147 BI Company’s Decision! (Subscribe)

The reason why BI developed the "toxin filtering catalyst" was simple.

According to the latest statistics from Fresenius Medical Care, a German company and the world's largest hemodialysis company:
There are currently about 550 million patients with uremia in the world, of which 450 million patients receive regular hemodialysis treatment. The annual sales volume of the consumables market alone is as high as US$170 billion.

Don't you want a piece of the action?

Of course I do.

In addition, as countries around the world have successively banned the harvesting of human organs from death row prisoners, the source of kidneys can only be through volunteer donations and kidneys provided by family members.

This means that fewer patients will be able to undergo kidney transplantation, and the vast majority of patients will only be able to receive hemodialysis.

In addition, with the increase in the number of patients with hypertension and diabetes in recent years, the number of patients with uremia worldwide has also been growing at a rate of about 15% per year. In the next few decades, the number of patients requiring dialysis will only increase.

It can be said,
Whether now or in the future, hemodialysis is a "highly prosperous" medical track. Who wouldn't be tempted?
of course,

The dialysis fluid market has been monopolized by Fresenius Medical Care next door, and it is difficult to squeeze in. BI can only find another way and target the niche track of "macromolecule toxin catalyst".
As long as the hemodialysis filtration rate can be raised from the current 85% to 92%, the "toxin filtration catalyst" will surely be sought after by the market, and there will even be no problem reaping the benefits for fifty years!
But now!

The sudden appearance of Qingshan Pharmaceutical's "Kidney Toxin Clearing Dialysis Needle" not only began to seize existing hemodialysis patients, but also has the potential to delay the "Stage IV Kidney Disease", which may greatly reduce the number of uremia patients in the future!

Especially the last point, which simply cuts off the future prospects of the entire "hemodialysis market"!

In the luxurious conference room on the 14th floor of BI's German headquarters, five senior executives looked extremely solemn.

"Mr. President, I should have thought of the impact that the 'Kidney Toxin Clearing Dialysis Needle' might have on our 'BI-Toxin Filtering Catalyst';

I didn’t notice it, I didn’t think about it, and that’s my fault!”

In the conference room with a solemn atmosphere, Vice President Hans broke the silence and stood up first to take his responsibility.

As the main person in charge of the "BI-Toxin Filtration Catalyst" project, he must stand up and take the blame.

After a full thirty seconds, the serious-looking CEO Dusman, who was sitting directly above, slowly shook his head:
"Hans, this matter cannot be entirely blamed on you. Who would have thought that Qingshan Pharmaceutical's research and development speed was so fast and the price was so low?"

"I think it's not just us. Even the hemodialysis companies next door, including Fresenius Medical Care, didn't expect Qingshan Pharmaceutical's Kidney Toxin Clear to have such a big impact! So big that it affected the entire industry!"

Hans breathed a sigh of relief and felt a little warm in his heart.

Although President Dusman is not very kind, he did not put all the responsibility on himself at this moment.

but,

After relaxing a little, he had to face this trouble again.

After a slight hesitation, he said:

"Mr. President, the entire 'hemodialysis market' has undergone major changes, and our 'toxin catalyst' project has also entered a new stage!"

"Now we have to make a decision. Should we continue to invest more R&D funds as planned to carry out the next stage of work, or..."

"Put the 'Toxin Catalyst' project on hold for now."

As he spoke, Hans' eyes flashed with helplessness, and he added:

"There is another situation that I must also talk about, even though it is a bit cruel..."

"According to the latest news, our neighbor Fresenius Medical Care has begun to prepare for a substantial price cut. It is said that this time the price of their 'dialysis fluid', 'dialysis filter' and other consumables will be reduced by more than 30%!"

30% off!

This news made the already tense atmosphere in the conference room even worse.

Several senior executives looked at each other in surprise, their eyes full of helplessness.

To put it bluntly, the "toxin filtering catalyst" project was originally established to make money, but now the entire industry has drastically reduced prices and entered a cold winter before the catalyst has even been developed.

If we continue to invest, can we still make money even after the research and development is completed?
Everyone looked at President Dusman who was standing above them.

Dusman also frowned. After thinking for a long time, he frowned and waved his hand without giving a direct answer.

"Hans, please tell me about the current status of the 'Toxin Filtration Catalyst' project."

"it is good."

"More than half a year ago, when we were conducting the Phase I clinical trial, the clinical data of 'Catalyst' was only about 2.5%.

After more than two months of searching for the problem, we determined that it was because the catalyst reacted with the blood in the dialysis machine for too short a time, which resulted in the catalyst being unable to completely and effectively decompose the macromolecular toxins, causing the data to fall short of expectations. "

The senior executives nodded slightly. Everyone understood the situation at the beginning.

When the "toxin filtering catalyst" was first used in the laboratory, it was indeed able to quickly and effectively decompose large molecular toxins in the blood. However, it was not until it was applied to human trials that it was discovered that in the human body environment and blood circulation, the "catalyst" required at least one hour to fully integrate in order to achieve an effective decomposition effect of more than 90%.

“We thought of several solutions at the beginning:”

"The first is for patients to be injected with our 'catalyst' one hour before dialysis;"

"The second option is to increase the dialysis time from 4 hours to 5 hours!"

"But both of these methods would increase the patient's dialysis time, so they were both rejected at the time!"

"Then there were only two options left:"

"The first is to find a way to improve the decomposition efficiency of the catalyst so that it can complete the filtration of large molecular toxins in the dialysis machine in a limited time with the dialysate."

"The second method is to inject the 'catalyst' into the body during dialysis, allowing it to circulate and decompose in the body, ultimately completing the filtration of large molecular toxins."

"In the end, we chose the first option, continuing the original idea when we started the project!"

"Now, after nearly half a year of hard work, we have increased the decomposition efficiency from 2.5% to 4%!"

"Of course, if we want to continue research and development and want to reach the goal of more than 6% that we set when we first started the project, we need to invest more scientific research funds." 4% to 6%.

The senior executives present took a deep breath. If it had happened before, such results would have been enough for everyone to continue investing without hesitation.

But now, the overall environment of the industry has changed, and the entire extracorporeal hemodialysis market has suffered a huge impact!
Then let's put it on hold for now?

I'm not willing to accept this!
In this way, the early scientific research investment will be wasted!

The senior executives pondered and hesitated. After about a minute, a senior executive in charge of technical research and development suddenly raised his hand:

"In addition to continuing to invest in research and development and temporarily shelving it, do we have a third option?"

"A third option?"

"Yes, in fact, a few months ago, when we first needed to choose a solution, I noticed that Qingshan Pharmaceutical's 'Kidney Toxin Clearing Dialysis Needle' is actually very compatible with our 'Toxin Filtering Catalyst'."

"Our 'catalyst' takes an hour to fully integrate with the blood. For hemodialysis, adding an hour is too expensive, but for 'Kidney Toxin Clearing', this is not a problem at all!"

"Their 'Kidney Toxin Clearing' lasts for 48 hours per injection. Do you still care about our one hour injection? Patients can be injected simultaneously!"

"and!"

"'Shenduqing' is very effective in breaking down small molecule toxins, and we happen to be able to break down large molecule toxins. This is absolutely a perfect complement!"

"So, I think we can turn around right now and start a new project to develop a 'toxin catalyst' that can be directly injected into the human body? This will form a perfect match with Qingshan Pharmaceutical's 'Kidney Toxin Clearing'?"

"Their sales are booming right now. I think the better their sales are, the better our sales with them shouldn't be too bad!"

"If the injectable 'catalyst' is successfully developed by then, with the support of the injectable 'catalyst', we may be able to restart the in vitro 'catalyst' that is currently on hold."

As soon as the words fell, everyone's eyes lit up.

They are not executives in charge of scientific research and technology, so they are not so sensitive about the technical direction.

After hearing this, I immediately felt that it was indeed interesting.

However, just as the top executives began to discuss excitedly, Hans suddenly shook his head:

"Dr. Schmidt, you forgot one thing!"

"More than half a year ago, Qingshan Pharmaceutical contacted us to obtain the patent license for the 'toxin filtering catalyst', but we refused."

"Later, they immediately announced on their official website that they had established a 'macromolecule toxin catalyst' project similar to ours, and Dr. Fang Hanliang, who had resigned from us, also joined them."

Schmidt shook his head:

"It's only been half a year, their research and development speed can't be that fast!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, even he himself suddenly hesitated.

Hesitantly, he added:

"It's only been half a year, their research and development speed can't be that fast, right? And they don't seem to have announced any research and development results yet?"

Hans gave a bitter smile:
"If it were any other pharmaceutical company, we wouldn't have to worry too much!"

"But they are—

Qingshan Pharmaceutical! "

"If you know them, you'll know that they either don't publish any progress, or once they publish results, they can almost immediately advance them to clinical trials..."

"So, Dr. Schmidt, now Qingshan Pharmaceutical must be developing its own 'macromolecule toxin catalyst'.

If we hastily launch the project now, let’s not talk about whether we can develop it or not. Even if we do, we will inevitably face competition from Qingshan Pharmaceutical! "

"You know, 'Shenduqing' is their own product. If they have their own 'catalyst', they will never cooperate with us and use our 'catalyst' for injection."

Hans' words were like a bucket of cold water that extinguished the hope that had just been ignited in everyone present.

Yes!

The injectable "catalyst" that Dr. Schmidt mentioned undoubtedly needs to be used in combination with "Kidney Toxin Clearing".

If Qingshan Pharmaceutical develops a similar drug on its own, can it cooperate with me?
impossible!

There was a brief silence in the conference room.

After about ten seconds, another senior executive in charge of marketing suddenly said:

"Forget it. I suggest that we put the 'Catalyst' project on hold for now!"

"Dr. Schmidt's idea is good, but as Hans said, if we start the project of developing injectable 'catalysts' again, we will have to compete head-on with Tsingshan Pharmaceutical. Even if the research and development is successful, we will have to rely entirely on Tsingshan Pharmaceutical's 'Kidney Toxin Clearing'."

"Instead of going through all this trouble, I think Qingshan Pharmaceutical has contacted us before, right?"

"They wanted to license our patent for 'Toxin Filtering Catalyst' before. We can ask them if they are still interested!"

"Or, we can just sell it to them and let them use it to develop drugs, and we'll collect dividends from the sales of new drugs!"

The words fell,

Several people present looked at each other, especially the last sentence that touched everyone.

Instead of working hard and taking risks to develop drugs by ourselves, it is better to sell it to Qingshan Pharmaceutical, let them do the work, and then we can reap the results and get the dividends from the new drugs!

I believe that with Qingshan Pharmaceutical's sales capabilities, the dividend amount will not be small!

(End of this chapter)