Academician Qi Rescued, FDA Thwarted

Jian Guohua failed to persuade them to use the drug and returned dejectedly, but he did not take it to heart.

After all, there were far too many family members like this—ones who would not give up until they saw the coffin.

Family members did not understand treatment, but they had their own ideas. Without absolute trust in the doctor, they often stubbornly insisted on their own opinions.

Especially family members with status and wealth. They always wanted the best, believed the most expensive was the best, and found foreign medicines especially appealing.

For ordinary patients, free trial medication might be an enormous blessing.

But to picky family members, it meant unreliability, numerous side effects, being used as White Mice, and so on. After all, in their eyes, no matter how expensive an anticancer drug was, as long as it was commercially available, it was easily obtained.

Life often took people by surprise.

Three days later, at two in the morning.

Jian Guohua was suddenly jolted awake by the ringing of his phone.

An urgent shout came through the line.

"Director Jian, this is bad! Academician Qi's condition has suddenly worsened. He's about to die! His family is crying and begging for you to operate. Please come immediately!"

Jian Guohua was nearly sixty. He had held the position of department director at a top hospital for so many years entirely because of his formidable reputation as Haishi's Best Surgeon. After turning fifty, he had only served as lead surgeon for critically ill patients who came from all over the country seeking his expertise.

Fortunately, he lived nearby and rushed to the hospital.

Outside the operating room, Qi Yetting and his wife saw him and immediately rushed over, weeping bitterly.

"Director Jian, you have to save my father! He still has unfulfilled wishes. Sob..."

Jian Guohua lightly patted the family member's arm and said solemnly, "I'll do my best."

Then he strode into the operating room.

Watching his disappearing back, Qi Yetting was filled with regret. If he had known, he should not have insisted on conservative treatment. They should have performed surgery and removed it earlier. Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret now.

Outside the operating room, the family members were on pins and needles, each moment feeling like a year.

At long last, the sun rose high.

A ray of sunlight streamed in through the window, and the operating room doors suddenly opened.

Jian Guohua emerged, looking exhausted, and was immediately surrounded by the family.

He smiled slightly. "The tumor has been completely removed. The patient's vital signs are stable. As long as the postoperative recovery goes well, he should be fine."

The family members were instantly overjoyed, hugging one another as they thanked heaven and earth.

Jian Guohua went home yawning and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

However, he had not slept long before the phone woke him again.

"What? Academician Qi's vital signs suddenly plummeted, and he's already been transferred to the ICU? How could that happen?"

His eyes were bloodshot. Unable to believe what he was hearing, he roared into the phone.

"The surgery clearly went perfectly! Have you found the cause?"

"What? The Cancer Cells had already begun distant metastasis before the operation. After surgery, they found that the Cancer Cells had spread to his brain, causing his condition to suddenly deteriorate. The patient is already unconscious."

"Fuck!" Jian Guohua could not stop himself from swearing. Without even having time to put on his socks, he jumped up and raced to the ICU at lightning speed.

Qi Yetting was sobbing uncontrollably outside the ward, tears streaming endlessly down his face. The instant he saw Jian Guohua, he charged over.

Thinking the family was about to cause trouble, Jian Guohua immediately retreated three steps and said warily, "Calm down! Calm down! It's not over yet."

To his surprise, Qi Yetting ignored him and rushed forward to hug Jian Guohua, bursting into loud sobs.

"Director Jian, I was wrong! I should have let the old man have the surgery sooner. Then it would never have dragged on until the late stage, when the Cancer Cells metastasized. I've been an unfilial son!"

Smack! Smack! Smack! He viciously slapped himself several times, and his face immediately swelled red. Mixed with his tears, he looked utterly remorseful.

Mrs. Qi also rushed over, wailing loudly. "The old man is going to die—what are we supposed to do? Ah, I don't want to live anymore either."

Jian Guohua shook his head and sighed. "Please accept my condolences."

Mrs. Qi suddenly raised her head, as though she had grasped a lifeline.

"Director Jian, didn't you say last time that there was a domestic anticancer drug with excellent results? Could we let the old man try it?"

A string of question marks seemed to pop up over Jian Guohua's head. He opened his mouth, just about to say something.

Qi Yetting suddenly grabbed both his hands, his eyes shining. "Yes, yes, Director Jian! The old man is going to die anyway. No matter what medicine it is, we have to try it. Prescribe it quickly!"

Jian Guohua did not know whether to laugh or cry. Back then, you did not want it. Now you wanted to treat a dead horse as if it were alive.

If you had known this would happen, why refuse in the first place? If he had taken the medicine earlier, he might have improved already and would not even have needed surgery.

Still, Jian Guohua was not sure whether the Three Purities anticancer drug was truly as effective as claimed. Besides, Academician Qi was practically at death's door, and there had never been a precedent for curing a patient in such critical condition.

He had to make the situation clear to the family first, lest they start arguing with him again if the treatment failed.

So he comforted them earnestly, "Don't panic. I'll administer this medicine to Academician Qi right away, but let me be frank first: our hospital cannot guarantee its effectiveness. You need to prepare yourselves mentally."

With tears and swelling still on his face, Qi Yetting said without hesitation, "It's already come to this. No matter what medicine it is, as long as there's even a sliver of hope, we have to try it. Even if it doesn't work, at least we, his children, will have done everything we could. Only then can we be at peace when the old man passes."

Mrs. Qi nodded repeatedly as well.

"Alright. There's a clinical drug trial consent form here. Please come over and sign it."

After making the arrangements, Jian Guohua took the signed documents from the family and returned to his office, his expression grave as he made a phone call.

"Yunyun, it's an emergency. Hurry and bring the anti-cancer drug over. Academician Qi is waiting in the ICU."

Two hours later, Jian Lianyun rushed over.

Since the patient was unconscious, the anti-cancer drug was administered intravenously into Academician Qi's body.

Time slowly passed. Jian Guohua and his daughter waited outside the ICU with the family. Only now did he truly understand how the family felt. Every moment felt like a year.

Three hours later, a nurse rushed out of the ICU and cried out in delight.

"Director Jian, the patient's vital signs are improving. The medication is taking effect."

Another three hours later, this time it was a doctor who rushed out of the ICU, his face full of excitement.

"Director Jian, the patient's vital signs have stabilized and haven't continued to worsen. What kind of medicine is this? It's simply miraculous."

Jian Guohua finally relaxed and said with a smile, "It's a domestically produced New Anti-Cancer Drug. I didn't expect the results to be this good either."

Qi Yetting and his wife were overjoyed and said sincerely, "We never imagined domestic medicine could be this powerful now. It really makes us see things in a new light. Director Jian, we're sorry. We were truly wrong. We should have listened to you from the start."

Jian Guohua waved his hand calmly. "It's fine. It's not too late now that he's been saved. You can all rest assured. Everyone's tired after this time, so go get some rest. I believe Academician Qi will recover soon."

"Mm." Qi Yetting nodded. He now followed Jian Guohua's every word. "Director Jian is right. We'll listen to you and rest first, then come back later."

At FDA headquarters in Eagle Country, Josen, the person in charge, was leisurely drinking coffee.

The blonde, blue-eyed secretary with a curvaceous figure swayed into the office and placed a stack of documents on the desk.

"Mr. Josen, these are the application documents for an anti-cancer drug from Pfizer Inc. They need urgent processing."

Josen reached out and gave the secretary a pat on the back, savoring the springiness beneath his fingertips. With a look of lingering enjoyment, he opened the folder and began leafing through it lazily.

He was very familiar with Pfizer Inc., and he had heard of this anti-cancer drug before—through Merck.

Just a few days ago, Merck's senior executives had secretly approached him and subtly hinted that an anti-cancer drug from the East wanted to pass FDA review and enter the Eagle Country market.

Although Pfizer was handling its agency and operations, it would still have a certain impact on Merck's anti-cancer drug market.

This was a serious blow to the interests of Eagle Country pharmaceutical companies, as well as an attack on Eagle Country's high-tech industry. It would be highly detrimental to Eagle Country's reputation and was extremely politically incorrect.

In light of their many years of pleasant cooperation, they hoped he could delay the approval process as much as possible.

After all, it was a free market. They weren't stopping the drug from being launched; they were merely slowing things down, finding more flaws, and scrutinizing side effects more strictly. After all, for a drug coming from the East's backward pharmaceutical industry, stricter requirements were also a matter of being responsible for the lives of Eagle Country's citizens.

Under the other party's righteous persuasion, he readily accepted their friendly suggestion. After all, the reason he had obtained his current position was because of the support of a senator backed by Merck.

However, he did not want to offend Pfizer, a pharmaceutical giant, either, so he decided to stall for the time being.

"Heh heh." He skimmed through the documents, then casually tossed them into a corner. "I'll just pretend I never saw them. As the person in charge of the FDA, I'm very busy. Missing one or two documents is perfectly reasonable."

Two days later, the blonde secretary suddenly began pressing him.

"Mr. Josen, Pfizer Vice President Andre has called several times, asking how the approval process for the anti-cancer drug is going."

Josen lowered his head and drank his coffee, milk foam covering his lips. "Tell him it'll take at least another week or two."

The secretary added, "Mr. Andre asks whether you're free. He wants to invite you to dinner?"

Josen gave a heh heh laugh. "What? Is he that anxious?"

He immediately began calculating inwardly. It seemed Pfizer placed great importance on this drug and was eager to get it on the market. Was there an opportunity here to reap some benefits?

However, he quickly remembered the financial backers behind him, who did not seem to be on the same side as Pfizer. Cold sweat immediately broke out across his face.

"Reject him. Tell him I'm not free, and don't report his calls to me anymore."

Josen looked at his secretary and spoke decisively.

On the other end of the line, Andre finally caught on after being rejected twice in a row.

Pfizer Inc. had always cooperated pleasantly with the FDA, and he and Josen were old acquaintances as well.

Yet the other party had suddenly begun avoiding him, while Pfizer's other new drugs had not been held up.

Only this anti-cancer drug, because it came from an Eastern pharmaceutical company, had been delayed on the grounds that it needed to provide more clinical data and meet stricter requirements.

Those reasons were all perfectly legitimate, leaving him unable to refute or complain.

Although anyone could see that those reasons were complete bullshit and that some shady deal was definitely going on behind the scenes.

But as the days passed one by one, he found himself helpless for the moment.

Bang!

Andre viciously smashed the ashtray on his desk onto the carpet, his face filled with fury.

"Damn it, Merck and Roche must be pulling strings behind the scenes. The senator backing that piece of shit Josen is funded by them."

"Looks like I can only tell Wei that the FDA approval process will definitely be delayed for a while."

"I can only do my best to look for other connections and see whether there's any chance of a turnaround."

With a helpless expression, he dialed Wei Kang's number.