The Greatest Scientific Ideas Often Came to Life in Cafés

Lucy quickly got to the point. "Professor Shen, GLK is very interested in your LPJK1 project, and we would like to collaborate with you."

"This project has a partner, and you know very well which one it is. You know me better than I know you." Shen Qi stared intently at Lucy. Today, she wore smoky makeup and bright red lipstick, almost gaudy. The biggest change was that Lucy, who used to have blonde curly hair, had dyed her hair black and straightened it.

"This is an eyesore!" Shen Qi rubbed his eyelids. "This style of long, straight black hair isn't something Lucy can just copy."

Lucy seemed quite pleased with her new look. She fiddled with her dyed black hair and said, "What I mean is, we could collaborate with Ou Beiqi Pharmaceutical."

"Then go and talk to the business manager at Ou Beiqi Pharmaceutical."

"Professor Shen, is there any need to beat around the bush?" Lucy noticed that Shen Qi was very wary of her, which was not the situation she wanted to see.

The Active compound for LPJK1 has just been developed, and this is highly confidential. Lucy, an Englishwoman, has come at this particular time of year, so Shen Qi is naturally wary. "Lucy, you have 7 minutes and 24 seconds left."

"Hoo..." Lucy took a deep breath to calm herself down. She felt that Shen Qi had a very strong suppressive power today, and was a completely different person from the kind and amiable Shen Qi last time.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. Last time, Shen Qi represented China in a state-to-state exchange with the UK, which involved a strong sense of diplomatic ceremony.

In diplomatic settings, Shen Qi would naturally appear amiable and kind.

Today, Lucy, as a company representative, visited the renowned scientist Shen Qi alone. Shen Qi could have easily refused to see her or simply sent a subordinate to deal with the matter.

Shen Qi taking ten minutes to invite Lucy for coffee was already a great favor to the British woman.

Lucy took a sip of coffee and continued, "R-type Anemia is a rare disease. Only by opening up the global market can we maximize profits. Ou Beiqi Pharmaceutical does not have overseas sales capabilities, while our GLK's sales channels cover the entire globe."

That finally hit the nail on the head.

Shen Qi quietly tore open the sugar packet, poured it into his coffee cup, and stirred it slowly, as if deep in thought.

A new drug that can be sold in China may not be able to be sold in the European Union and the United States.

Animal experiments and clinical trials were conducted in China, but they need to be repeated in the European Union and the US.

Globally, the FDA has the most stringent review standards. Even if a compound is developed according to FDA standards during the preclinical research stage, it is not guaranteed to pass FDA review and enter the US market. This involves many factors, including technology, public relations, and even luck.

Ou Beiqi Pharmaceutical clearly lacks any overseas resources. To open up overseas markets, it would require a significant investment and a considerable amount of time to operate. Drug development is expensive, and so is market operation.

Compared to other countries, China's policies for protecting rare and orphan drugs are still being improved. Shen Qi predicted that if LPJK1, a rare and orphan drug, were only sold in the Chinese market, it would definitely lose money.

Shen Qi's initial motivation for creating LPJK1 was to save his wife and other patients with similar illnesses.

The initial intention was correct and noble, but in the specific implementation, we can't afford to lose money.

The pharmaceutical industry requires sufficient sales and profits; otherwise, pharmaceutical companies will quickly go bankrupt.

Many pharmaceutical companies have gone bankrupt because they failed to develop and market a new drug.

Therefore, most small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies sell their compound patents to large pharmaceutical companies after completing animal experiments or Phase I clinical trials, because large pharmaceutical companies are large and can afford to wait.

"Giving the overseas sales rights of LPJK1 to GLK seems like a good option," Shen Qi said. "Lucy, how about this: after the animal experiments are finished, I'll arrange for you to talk to the business manager of O'Beiqi about the overseas operation of LPJK1."

"Looking forward to your good news." Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. This negotiation was actually a bit unconventional, since the animal experiments for LPJK1 had not yet been conducted.

Shen Qi escorted Lucy to the entrance of the central building and kindly reminded her, "Lucy, you dyed your hair black and straightened it. This style doesn't suit you. You should go back to your original blonde curls."

"Oh, this is so heartbreaking! I spent all day doing this hairstyle!" Lucy was devastated; her hair was more important to her than her business.

Generally, compounds that have completed animal testing are the ones that attract the attention of pharmaceutical giants. Compounds that have not passed animal testing are considered worthless, and it remains to be seen whether the twenty-odd Active compound in LPJK1 will pass animal testing.

Shen Qi was, after all, Fields Medal winner and Nobel Prize in Physics winner; his name was a golden brand, which gave Lucy confidence.

Anyway, Lucy's gesture of goodwill didn't cost GLK a single penny, and Shen Qi even paid for the coffee. She drank two cups, one mocha and one latte.

After finishing her coffee, with Shen Qi's permission, Lucy also took away a custom-made, high-tech coffee cup—unavailable on the market, made of metal and glass—with Shen Qi's quote printed on it. "Great scientific ideas are often born in coffee shops."

After seeing Lucy off, Shen Qi immediately instructed his subordinates to apply for patents for more than twenty Active compound of LPJK1.

This work was originally done during animal experiments, and there was no need to apply for a patent for the Active compound that caused obvious side effects or even death in the experimental animals.

Shen Qi is now on high alert, and while cooperating with foreign parties, he must also remain vigilant.

Last time, Shen Qi took Lucy on a tour of their laboratory. Today, Shen Qi only let Lucy have coffee in the central café, and at most gave her a custom-made coffee cup, that's all.

Shen Qi assigned a key member to handle the patent registration. "He Lin, your group's current experimental work can be suspended for now. What you need to do now is to go to the patent office and register all the product patents, intermediate patents, synthesis method patents, and combination patents for the more than twenty Active compound of LPJK1. While you're at the domestic patent office, also apply for a PCT. You should be very familiar with this process, right?"

PCT stands for International Patent Application, and this organization has over a hundred member countries. He Lin smiled and said, "Director Shen has a strong survival instinct; is he that insecure?"

"He Lin, you studied in a capitalist country, so you know the true nature of capitalism very well. To maximize profits, they will stop at nothing. While you shouldn't be malicious, you must be wary of others. Hurry up, once this is done, everyone can take a break. I'll take you all out for a team-building activity to relax."

Shen Qi was extremely worried about the LPJK1 project, and his beloved wife was also busy.

Ou Ye and three students are conducting research on the strong BSD Conjecture.

One teacher and three students, all quite laid-back. They didn't apply for research grants or submit projects to the national government; Ou Ye funded the research on the strong BSD Conjecture out of his own pocket.

Compared to the extremely expensive drug development, purely theoretical mathematical research doesn't cost much.

A few computers, a few whiteboards, a few boxes of A4 paper, a few boxes of pens, a few cups of coffee, a few bottles of water, a few takeout orders—that's all the equipment and materials I paid for.

Xiao Yun said in a tone reciting a textbook, "Professor Shen's discussion in 'The History of Number Theory' is brilliant: To prove the BSD Conjecture, you must first be familiar with the Hasse conjecture, and then you must personally prove the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture using Wiles' method. When you get to this point, you are not far from proving Fermat's Last Theorem, so please continue to use Mr. Andrew Wiles' Elliptic Curve method to prove Fermat's Last Theorem."

"If you have proven Fermat's Last Theorem, please continue reading below; otherwise, please skip to the next chapter. The following section asks you to extend L(E, s) into a function that gives a response for any complex number s, using the pattern of the Riemann zeta function. To help you better understand this chapter, I recommend reading another book I have written, <The Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis>."

"Xiao Yun, don't tell me you can recite the entire History of Number Theory from memory? That book has hundreds of pages!" Zhao Tian had, of course, also read Shen Qi's History of Number Theory. This book was an elective textbook for undergraduates in the School of Mathematics at Yenching Big Mathematics Department, and also a required textbook for the Department of the Princeton Mathematics Department.