Biotech R&D Base

"Recently, Philip Dixon, chairman of the Medicines Safety Committee, was placed under investigation by London police on suspicion of accepting bribes..."

"Affected by the Coffee-gate Incident, the share prices of companies such as Wellcome, Zeneca, and Glaxo Pharmaceuticals have continued to fall, hitting the daily limit down for a full week, with roughly three hundred million pounds wiped off their market value..."

"Due to the impact of the October stock market crash, the market has reacted strongly to several companies' shares hitting the limit down. Experts interpret this sharp decline in medical stocks as unlikely to trigger a chain reaction, and urge investors not to panic..."

Murphy curled his lip. "Just their bad luck."

In October of that very year, the world had just gone through a major stock market crash. On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Index plunged 508.32 points in a single day, a drop of 22.6%. In a little over six hours, the New York stock market lost five hundred billion in value, equivalent to one-eighth of the entire U.S. GDP at the time.

That day was called Black Monday by Wall Street.

Terrible panic immediately swept the globe, and stock markets in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and elsewhere all plunged.

By the end of October, the British stock market had fallen 26%, and countless millionaires had been reduced to poverty overnight.

Even though a month or two had already passed, the terrifying memory of the crash still lingered in people's minds, and countless people had become frightened birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring.

This time, those pharmaceutical companies' stock prices had originally only dipped temporarily because Murphy had framed them. In the past, if they had handled public relations and cut ties properly, they might have bounced back very quickly.

But this time, not only was public pressure growing heavier and heavier, they had happened to run right into the greatest stock market crash in history. Their share prices were smashed straight to the bottom, and even the entire medical sector was dealt a huge blow.

In response, Murphy could only raise a glass with Patrick in celebration, as a show of mourning.

It was not pure gloating, either. The shrinkage of their market value had brought Murphy real benefits. For instance, one research institute under Wellcome that had originally been valued at over five million pounds and was not for sale was now practically begging Umbrella to buy it for just one million pounds.

They were now in urgent need of Umbrella's understanding and would agree to any conditions. Otherwise, they could see their own house was about to collapse.

Naturally, Murphy did not stand on ceremony. He had already packaged and acquired three research institutions. If not for the fact that he effectively had enough already, Murphy would even have considered sweeping up all their pharmaceutical factories as well.

At the same time, taking advantage of Umbrella Corporation's soaring reputation, Murphy also launched several rounds of financing, splitting off and selling 8% of the shares for nearly one hundred million pounds.

The only pity was that the stock market was truly in poor shape right now. Otherwise, if they had gone public at this moment, with their rapidly rising reputation, it would not have been difficult to rocket straight into the circle of ten-billion-level tycoons in one shot.

Still, Murphy was not greedy. This was already enough. There was no need to take steps that were too large; steady progress would do.

With money in hand, Murphy's research institute plan could finally begin.

Thanks to all the early preparations, a series of matters such as approval, land acquisition, and design were quickly completed. In the spring of 1988, the Umbrella Group Biotech R&D Base officially broke ground.

Hertfordshire.

Murphy met Patrick, who was wearing a hard hat.

"How's the project progressing?"

"Come on. I'll take you up the hill for a look."

Patrick led Murphy up a slope. Down below, in the middle of the wilderness, a construction site was in full swing.

"A total of 970 acres, divided into six zones. What's currently under construction is Zone One. It has three main buildings. The largest is the White Medicine plantation, seventeen floors, with a floor area of about 19 acres. As for the remaining two buildings, according to our original plan, one is the White Medicine medicinal material cultivation and optimization base, and the other is the White Medicine R&D center."

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

The plantation used the vertical farm design Patrick had suggested. For now, they were building one first to test the waters. If the results were validated, they would continue building three more vertical farms.

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

This was a place capable of producing Nobel Prize-level results. Construction had not even begun, yet already a dozen famous scholars wanted to join them.

The purpose of the medicinal material cultivation and optimization base was to study dittany from the botanical side, combining gene editing, cellular engineering, mutagenesis, hybridization, and other breeding techniques to optimize dittany's active components and increase its yield.

Aside from Zone One, Murphy had also opened up research areas for Beauty Potion, Skele-Gro, Blood-Replenishing Potion, and other potions in the future. Behind each of these extremely miraculous potions, the biological mechanisms they contained might be a major discovery worthy of one or even several Nobel Prizes.

These were all treasures, and Murphy would absolutely not waste them lightly.

In his vision, in the future, he would also establish a magical plant cultivation base and mass-produce all kinds of magical plants. In fact, he had already bought quite a few seeds. Once dittany cultivation was on the right track and Umbrella Corporation had accumulated a certain amount of experience in magical plant cultivation, they could begin work on it.

At the same time, there also had to be a magical animal breeding center. There were so many magical creatures in the wizarding world. Not only could their body tissues serve as potion ingredients, but the magical abilities some magical animals possessed were themselves extremely worthy of study. This was another incomparably rich treasure trove.

Of course, a spell research institute was also essential. It was just that in this field, there was not as much accumulated Muggle technology to borrow from as there was with potions. Moreover, if he wanted Muggle researchers to participate, he would inevitably have to carry out deep cooperation with wizards, and that might contain no small amount of risk. Murphy planned to start on a small scale in the future and test the waters first.

Thinking of the countless exciting projects waiting for him to realize in the future, Murphy felt filled with motivation.

Wasn't this far more interesting than replying to those boring letters at the damn Pest Advisory Office?

"How long will it take to finish all of Zone One?" Murphy asked.

"The land-leveling work is basically complete now. Foundation pouring will take about a month, the main structures three months, and piping and finishing two months. If things go quickly, it should be ready for use in half a year."

Unlike ordinary simple factory buildings, both the R&D center and the vertical plantation were high-rise, three-dimensional structures, far more complex in design. The workload even exceeded that of ordinary residential districts and office buildings.

Half a year was honestly already extremely fast.

This was also the result of Umbrella sparing no expense.

But Murphy still felt it was a little slow. Although he was tempted to use magic to speed up the progress, with the amount of magic he had, the role he could play in such a large-scale construction project would be extremely limited. After thinking about it, he could only give up.

"Half a year, then. Before that, rent a few places first and set up the framework. As for those research institutes we bought, pause any research that hasn't made much progress. Divide up the work for them and have them all focus on White Medicine research."

"As for the scholars who wanted to come do research before, and the scholars on the list Rita recommended, screen them and talk to them. If their abilities are decent, hire them."

"Mm, the company's administrative staff needs to be expanded too. We might as well organize a large-scale recruitment drive," Patrick suggested.

"Do it! Go ahead and do it boldly. We've got money. As long as they're capable, offer as much salary as you need. Once we burn through this one hundred million, worst comes to worst, I'll sell a few more shares."

Patrick smiled. "You say that like our shares are cabbages."

"If they can't be turned into money, they're just a sheet of white paper, worse than cabbages." Murphy did not care at all.

"Right, one more thing. Since we're going to have researchers get involved in the study of White Medicine, what are you thinking in terms of confidentiality?"

Murphy frowned. "True. That's a big problem."

It wasn't that he was afraid the secret of Essence of Dittany's ingredients would leak into the Muggle world and be copied or anything. The main concern was the wizard side.

"Have them sign a confidentiality agreement first—one that'll bankrupt them if they breach it. When I have a better solution, I'll let you know."

Research into Essence of Dittany probably wouldn't produce any major results anytime soon, so that kind of confidentiality agreement would be enough for now. But in the long run, some kind of secrecy magic would still be safer.

He wondered whether that guy Wood had found any leads yet.