FDA Needs a Change

Eagle Country, FDA Headquarters.

Josen lounged lazily on the sofa, smoking a cigar and puffing out clouds of smoke, looking utterly content.

He had just met with Merck's pharmaceutical representative, and the box of Cuban cigars the man had brought him tasted truly excellent.

It was said that they had even been handmade by eighteen-year-old girls, rolled on their soft, tender thighs.

No wonder they carried such a sweet, fragrant scent, as wonderful as a young girl's body fragrance.

Now these were the kind of people who knew how to behave.

Just then, the female secretary swayed gracefully into the room in six-inch heels.

Josen was about to tease her a little when he noticed that her face was stern and serious.

What was going on? That little slut actually dared to give her boss attitude?

Was she dissatisfied with his usual groping?

"Mr. Josen, please open a news website and take a look."

Josen opened the Fox Website in confusion and looked at its headline story.

He could not help feeling a little gleeful at someone else's misfortune. "Another protest march? Where are all these people going?"

The news reported that a group of people was preparing to march in protest and voice their strong opposition. Seeing the familiar cityscape in the pictures, he looked excited to watch the spectacle unfold.

"Haha, are they going to protest some idiotic policy at the presidential residence again? The White House really has terrible luck."

Just as he was enjoying the drama, a noisy commotion suddenly rose from outside the window, growing louder and louder.

It sounded as if eight million ducks had gathered downstairs, quacking and squawking.

What was going on? Could someone actually be bold enough to cause trouble at the FDA?

He stubbed out his cigar and walked to the window. Looking down, he rubbed his eyes fiercely, hardly daring to believe what he saw.

"What the hell? Why are there so many people gathered down there?"

Josen roared at the female secretary.

The secretary calmly pointed at his computer screen. "Mr. Josen, didn't you read the news carefully? The people marching are here because of the FDA. The crowd downstairs is only a small portion of them. Many more are still on their way."

Josen stared at the secretary in shock, as though struck by lightning. He hurried back to his desk and began reading the news carefully.

Earlier, he had only glanced at the headline and pictures, barely reading the actual article.

So the department unlucky enough to be targeted by a protest march was actually the FDA?

In any country, for any department, this would be a major incident. It would draw widespread attention and might even immediately spread overseas, becoming explosive news.

It would obviously have an immensely negative impact on his political career.

The more he read, the paler his face became, while the crowd's shouts continued to ring out from outside.

"We need effective cancer drugs! We strongly protest this unfair treatment!"

"Why reject the clinical trials for the New Anti-Cancer Drug? Why refuse to approve the New Anti-Cancer Drug?"

"You are strangling our lives! You are wiping out our hope of surviving!"

"Cancer patients have the right to live too!"

"FDA, explain yourselves! We need the truth! We refuse to accept this shady scheme!"

Josen stared blankly at the dense black mass of people below. Seeing more and more people arriving, his vision went dark, and he nearly fainted.

He suddenly grabbed the female secretary by the arm and roared furiously, "Damn it, tell me what the hell is going on!"

"Who is pulling strings behind this? Why would people come here to protest the FDA's shady dealings?"

"Was it Pfizer? I definitely won't let them get away with this! I'll make them understand the consequences!"

The secretary gave a cold laugh. "Josen, you should look at Twitter instead. Do you know? Mabus has called you out by name."

She shook her head and looked at him with pity. "You're finished."

Josen's heart trembled violently as he frantically opened Mabus's Twitter homepage.

The moment he saw it, his blood pressure shot through the roof.

Mabus was angrily condemning him: "Only today did I learn that the FDA's head, Josen, rejected the market approval of a New Anti-Cancer Drug with miraculous effects out of personal motives. This is a disregard for the lives of Eagle Country's people. This is an abuse of authority. There must be filthy exchanges of money and power behind this despicable parasite. God bless our country."

His limbs went cold as he collapsed into his chair, muttering, "What the hell is going on? I never fucking offended him!"

The secretary hesitated to speak. After a long while, she finally said softly, "Mr. Josen, I heard that Mr. Mabus was recently diagnosed with cancer."

Josen abruptly sprang to his feet and asked in bewilderment, "Cancer isn't incurable. There are so many top cancer drugs from Eagle Country's pharmaceutical companies, and it's not like he can't afford them. Why did he specifically bring up this cancer drug from an Eastern pharmaceutical company?"

The secretary coughed and said mysteriously, "I heard he has pancreatic cancer, the king of all cancers. There is currently no effective drug for it. But not long ago, this cancer drug from that Eastern pharmaceutical company cured a Nobel Prize in Physics winner who also had pancreatic cancer."

After saying that, the well-informed secretary glanced at him as if looking at a dead man, then swayed her hips and walked out of the office.

Josen's legs gave out, and he slumped back into his chair. In an instant, his clothes were soaked with sweat, and his entire mind went blank.

So that was it. He had actually offended Mabus, the richest man in the world, without realizing it. This was a disaster.

He had never imagined that this obscure Eastern cancer drug could actually cure Mabus's cancer.

Damn Mabus. Why did he have to get this damned cancer only after Josen had rejected that anticancer drug?

The phone on the desk suddenly rang shrilly, startling him.

The moment he saw the number, he picked up at once, practically bowing and scraping as his voice turned exceedingly fawning.

"Congressman Brown, it's me. It's Josen."

"I don't know what happened either! I really wasn't trying to make things difficult for Mabus. How would I dare offend him?"

Josen was on the verge of tears. "You have to believe me. I didn't mean to do it. I absolutely never intended to drag you down with me."

"Congressman Brown, for the sake of all the years I've served you, could you please put in a good word for me with Mabus? Tell him I'll approve this anticancer drug for market immediately, then go kneel before him and beg his forgiveness."

He pleaded desperately, wishing he could appear before Congressman Brown that very moment and drop to his knees to beg for mercy.

"What? You don't want to see me again? What? Mabus said only my complete disappearance could extinguish his anger?"

"No, no, Congressman Brown, please... don't abandon me..."

"Beep—"

Listening to the dial tone from the phone, Josen collapsed to the floor, completely dazed.

He had thought that as long as he apologized, Congressman Brown would continue supporting him.

After all, he had been working for the man.

Otherwise, why would he have gone out of his way to oppose Pfizer Inc.?

Wouldn't it have been better to make a tidy profit?

Wouldn't that have been better than offending people like this?

Yet that damned Congressman Brown, the moment he saw things were going bad, kicked Josen aside like a dead dog.

And Mabus actually wanted to force him out of office.

Before this, Josen would have believed his position at the FDA was as solid as a mountain. After all, he and Congressman Brown were tied to the same rope. At worst, they could tear off all pretenses and fight to the death—Josen might still have had a chance.

But faced with Mabus, the uncrowned king with his terrifying power to rally people, he knew his good days had truly come to an end.

If he struggled even a little, he would immediately be blacklisted and silenced, with no chance to speak out again.

People would surely stand behind Mabus and denounce Josen together for his countless misdeeds.

Even more terrifying was that Congressman Brown would definitely betray him completely to prove his own innocence.

Every illegal deal and under-the-table transaction Josen had been involved in over the years would be dug up and exposed to the world.

Perhaps he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

I reviewed it five or six times, and it completely broke my mindset.