This Side Effect is Truly Wonderful

"President Wei, do you think I'm suitable?"

Hearing Sheng Changya's self-recommendation, Wei Kang could not help but freeze.

So that was what she had in mind.

At once, he felt a measure of admiration for the girl's persistence and courage.

However, that alone was not enough to move him.

A faint smile appeared on Wei Kang's lips. "Miss Sheng, to be honest, what you just said has been the biggest surprise of my day."

"I truly admire you."

"But—" He suddenly paused.

On the other end of the line, Sheng Changya's heart leaped into her throat. The fingers gripping the phone tightened until they ached faintly.

Yet she said nothing, quietly waiting for Wei Kang to continue.

Wei Kang went on.

"But one phone call alone can hardly convince me completely."

"To be frank, I know you're capable, but I don't know exactly how capable you are."

"I wonder if you understand that."

"Being capable is not enough. You also need to prove your capabilities to me."

"Only then can I trust you, invest resources, and build a domestic cosmetics brand."

"After all, I'm the one putting up the real money, and I'm also the one providing the Whitening Drug."

"President Wei, I..." Sheng Changya spoke urgently, as though she wanted to say something.

Wei Kang cut her off. "First, produce a feasibility analysis report and prove your capabilities."

"No problem. Please rest assured, I will prove myself." Sheng Changya agreed without hesitation, her tone brimming with fighting spirit.

"Three days. I can produce a feasibility analysis report in three days. Give me a week, and I'll give you a product development plan."

"Good. I'll wait for your report." Wei Kang readily agreed. "If I'm satisfied, I'll invest in this project. From then on, I'll leave all company affairs to you as well."

"This..." Sheng Changya was overwhelmed with surprise and joy, hardly believing her ears. "You trust me that much?"

"When I employ someone, I don't doubt them. If I doubt someone, I don't employ them."

Wei Kang said calmly, "So you'd better not disappoint me. I don't give second chances."

"Don't worry, President Wei!" Sheng Changya clenched her fists and said excitedly, "I, Sheng Changya, will never disappoint you."

"Fine. Then I'll be waiting for you in my office three days from now."

With that, Wei Kang hung up.

Sheng Changya took a deep breath. It felt as though she were in a dream. She pinched her thigh hard, and only when the sharp pain struck did she dare believe it was real.

"Ah! A chance to completely change my life only comes once in a lifetime! I'm going all in!"

She shouted wildly and kept jumping in excitement, as though she wanted to vent every emotion she had been holding in all this time.

Finally, she ran to the bed, spread her arms, and dove straight down onto it face-first.

Her body sank into the soft bedding, and she felt as light as a cloud.

All the strength in her body seemed to drain away at once. She did not even have the strength to move a finger.

She simply lay there on the bed with her eyes closed.

Time seemed to stand still.

Oh, no. There's still a test waiting for me. This is only the first step of a long journey.

She suddenly snapped awake, sprang upright, rolled over into a sitting position, and touched her face.

There were actually tear tracks on her cheeks, though she had no idea when they had appeared.

Never mind that. She still had a project feasibility report to write.

Tonight, she would stay up late, pull an all-nighter, and get to work!

She rushed into the bathroom like a gust of wind and splashed her face carelessly with cold water.

She immediately felt refreshed.

It was as though she had returned to those days when she stayed up studying for exams.

Her whole body was buzzing with excitement, as if she had been injected with adrenaline, full of drive.

She sat down at her desk and opened her laptop.

First, she sent an email to her direct supervisor, made up an excuse, and requested a week off.

Fortunately, she had worked overtime so often before that she had accumulated plenty of annual leave. Taking leave at a foreign company was also quite easy.

Then she emailed her colleagues, listed every work matter one by one, and completed the handover for her leave.

By the time she finished that series of tasks, fifteen minutes had already passed.

Warm-up complete!

Perfect condition!

Opened Office and got to work!

Life or death, success or failure—it all came down to this!

He instantly threw himself wholeheartedly into the blazing work.

He cast the entire world to the back of his mind.

At that moment, Wei Kang was in the laboratory, going through the compiled list of abandoned formulas from major pharmaceutical companies.

This was the result of several days of hard work by the laboratory's R&D personnel.

They now had absolute confidence in the company and worked with great diligence. In just a few days, they had organized more than two hundred discarded formulas according to Wei Kang's requirements.

Wei Kang was very satisfied. What he urgently needed now was a product that could be put into production and sold immediately.

The New Anti-Cancer Drug still had some time before it could be launched, while the whitening cosmetics fell under the category of special cosmetics and likewise required approval from the Drug Administration Bureau before they could go on the market. That would take several months as well.

Thus, Sanqing Pharmaceutical—the rising star of the pharmaceutical industry—did not currently have a single flagship product available for sale.

It truly did not live up to the glowing praise the media had recently lavished on it.

He had to develop a formula as soon as possible that had broad applications and a powerful consumer market. Ideally, it could be sold as a health supplement.

Health supplements, also known as dietary supplements, were foods intended for specific groups of people but could not be directly used to treat illnesses.

They could regulate the body's functions and supplement nutrition. Long-term use could strengthen the body and prolong life.

The reason Wei Kang had set his sights on health supplements was that, from production to launch, they were regulated according to food standards.

As long as they met the requirement of having no toxic side effects, they could pass inspection by the Drug Administration Bureau and quickly enter the market.

The health supplement market was also enormous. Conservative estimates put the domestic market at around 200 billion yuan, and it was still growing rapidly every year.

Generally speaking, 70% of this market was occupied by health supplements for middle-aged and elderly people. However, in recent years, many young people had also begun placing great emphasis on their health and started taking care of themselves early.

Therefore, if he developed a highly effective health supplement, it would inevitably sweep the market and become a money-making weapon.

However, the country had very strict regulations regarding the functions of health supplements, limiting them to twenty-seven categories, including enhancing immunity; lowering blood lipids, blood sugar, and blood pressure; antioxidation; detoxification and lead removal; improving sleep and fatigue; radiation resistance; weight loss; liver protection; stomach care; acne removal; promoting digestion and bowel movements; and so on.

In short, there was a wide variety of them, but they were basically foods that regulated physiological functions and provided auxiliary treatment.

Even herbal teas counted as health supplements. This had led to a chaotic market filled with products of wildly varying quality. Without sharp eyes, one was basically doomed to be fleeced.

And this industry did not just fleece domestic consumers—it fleeced foreign consumers with equal enthusiasm.

In developed countries such as Europa and Eagle Country, health supplements were known as "health foods," with global annual retail sales reaching 100 billion US dollars.

Best-selling products were mainly divided into three categories: the first was low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie health foods, a category that included the meal replacements that had recently become popular domestically; the second was nutritional supplements such as vitamins, minerals, fish oil, and lecithin; the third was health teas and traditional herbal health supplements, which were also very popular domestically, with herbal health supplements accounting for most of the market.

Many pharmaceutical companies had also set their sights on this rich, juicy cake, constantly acquiring and establishing health supplement companies in an attempt to enter the market and make a killing.

However, successful cross-industry ventures were relatively rare. Quite a few pharmaceutical companies had crashed and burned, suffering heavy losses and being forced to withdraw in disgrace.

Wei Kang was no exception. After all, this was a mass-consumption industry relatively closely related to pharmaceuticals.

It was still easier than venturing into some entirely unrelated industry.

For example, electric vehicles, which everyone was making? Was it still too late to enter the market now?

Wei Kang thought about it and found the idea absurd himself, quickly dismissing it.

He first looked through some formulas that had failed even Phase I clinical toxicology testing.

Some caused severe damage to internal organs and were metabolized slowly, making them unusable even if the dosage was reduced.

Others caused relatively obvious allergic reactions, and those depended on the circumstances.

In fact, many drugs could cause allergic reactions. Some allergies could even be life-threatening, but the probability of such reactions was not high.

For drugs like Penicillin, the probability of an allergic reaction was very low, hovering around a few tenths of a percent.

The incidence of anaphylactic shock was even lower, ranging from 0.4 to 4 cases per ten thousand, while the mortality rate was close to 0.1 per ten thousand.

Many people were simply unwilling to use drugs of this kind.

Therefore, formulas with severe allergic reactions or high toxicity had no value whatsoever for further development.

Although this was not a difficult problem for Wei Kang, because there was a saying in the pharmaceutical industry: toxicity without discussing dosage was just nonsense.

Any toxin would only cause serious harm to the human body after reaching a certain amount.

Those carcinogenic substances people often heard about were encountered by ordinary people in minuscule amounts every day, with no significant effect on the body.

So even if a formula failed toxicology testing, if he could find a usable side effect, he could still extract it and create a best-selling new drug.

Unfortunately, after a cursory glance, they all had some fatal flaws.

He could only start by selecting from drugs that had passed toxicology testing. Once there were no suitable formulas left to extract from, he would come back and carefully examine these formulas that had been abandoned so early in the toxicology testing stage.

"This antihypertensive formula looks decent, but it damages the kidneys far too severely. Its other side effects don't have any noteworthy potential either. It's completely unusable."

"This gastric antacid formula seems pretty good. Its toxicity is extremely weak, practically negligible. It would have no problem passing Phase I clinical toxicology testing."

"The side effects include muscle weakness, nausea, diarrhea, and so on. It can even cause severe abdominal pain. This R&D guy was fucking talented. Now I finally understand why this drug was abandoned."

"Huh? It actually has a slight effect that promotes alcohol breakdown?"

"Holy shit, this side effect is perfect. It's exactly what I wanted."

Wei Kang's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help exclaiming.

Sorry, something came up tonight, and by the time I finished writing, it was already quite late. Thanks to Meiwuu1001, Cosmic Little Junjun, and Ziyang Mumu Little Pighead Chong Chong Chong for the tips.