Chapter 465 - 213: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Chapter 465: Chapter 213: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Seeing Jiang Miao return, He Youwei quickly stood up. "Teacher."

"Why the long face?" Jiang Miao took off his coat and hung it on the rack next to the shoe shelf.

Shuya, holding their daughter, explained, "Her research project has been stalled."

"The project for the lupus-specific drug?"

He Youwei looked helpless. "Yes, Teacher. I’ve tried everything, but I haven’t been able to get any decent results. I’ve found a few relatively common gene targets, but they can’t suppress lupus efficiently and with low side effects."

"The fact that you realize that means you’ve probably identified the problem," Jiang Miao said, sitting down on the sofa and pinching his daughter’s little cheek.

Hearing this, He Youwei nodded with a wry smile. "Yes, Teacher. If you asked me to create a custom drug for each lupus patient right now, I could do it with just two or three minor adjustments to tailor a specific formula for each one. But as for a universal drug that can be mass-produced... I’m afraid that’s impossible."

"What are you thinking?"

"Isn’t your company establishing a hospital?"

"You want to work at this hospital?"

He Youwei nodded. "I want to help other patients like me by creating custom-tailored drugs for them."

"Are you sure?" Jiang Miao took a sip from his teacup. He knew that He Youwei had received her doctorate from Wudaokou University last November and had also qualified as a resident at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

However, because He Youwei had learned Jiang Miao’s various gene-targeting therapy techniques, she had no way to apply them at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. After all, the hospital had only granted her a residency because of her background. Secretly, they were probably hoping this "little ancestor" would finish up and take a prestigious position somewhere else.

"I’m sure. Through my connections at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, I found five patients and, under the guise of developing a new drug, formulated specific treatments for them. After just two or three minor adjustments, they all achieved results similar to my own. Since I can’t develop a universal drug, I don’t think I should let the knowledge I’ve learned go to waste."

Seeing the determination in He Youwei’s eyes, Jiang Miao nodded slightly. "Can you still manage your research on the side?"

"Yes," He Youwei replied with a very firm nod.

Jiang Miao shook his head. "I can open a specialized lupus department for you at Hailufeng Hospital. But this year, you need to hurry and train a few capable physicians. Don’t try to do everything yourself; just focus on the core work. Also, I’ll create a revised version of the Nuwa System and launch an auxiliary diagnostic system specifically for lupus-related genes. You can use this system to train several more physicians, which should increase your efficiency by at least several dozen times."

"Thank you, Teacher." He Youwei was deeply moved.

Hailufeng Hospital had already been established. Jiang Miao hadn’t started from scratch; instead, he had someone acquire three private hospitals and merge them into one.

These three private hospitals were located in the city district, Hai Feng, and Lufeng, respectively. All were small, poorly managed facilities.

Jiang Miao didn’t need these hospitals to turn a profit immediately. He intended to use them as training bases for medical personnel.

Compared to large, top-tier hospitals, Hailufeng Hospital would focus more on specialized treatments, such as He Youwei’s lupus department.

In truth, if a specialized department was run well, there would be no shortage of patients, given the country’s huge population. For example, the incidence rate of lupus in the country was thirty to seventy per one hundred thousand people.

What did that incidence rate mean?

It meant there were between 420,000 and 980,000 patients nationwide. With such a massive patient base, it was more than enough to support a specialty hospital. Even opening several branch campuses probably wouldn’t be enough to handle the demand.

However, the current treatment plan for the lupus department didn’t allow for the mass training of specialists. He Youwei would have to train them slowly herself. After all, understanding gene sequences required either learning the underlying principles of genetics or, without that, simply learning through rote memorization.

Fortunately, since it was just a lupus department, the number of relevant gene sequences was relatively small. It was possible to teach them through rote memorization, supplemented by the gene-targeting therapy auxiliary system.

If one wanted to reach He Youwei’s level—able to independently analyze gene targets for any type of genetic disease—one would have to learn the fundamental principles of genetics.

Another thought occurred to He Youwei. "Teacher, I’ll handle the lupus department. But since the development of a universal drug failed, I plan to find a new research direction after the Spring Festival. Do you have any suggestions?"

’Suggestions?’ Jiang Miao fell into thought.

At this stage, the most promising medical research projects were in areas like cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, organ transplantation, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperuricemia.

But cancer could be largely ruled out. It wasn’t that He Youwei wasn’t capable, but with the gene-targeting techniques she had learned, it was highly likely she would end up in the same situation as with lupus: only able to create personalized drugs for individual patients. This was obviously not a suitable direction.

Organ transplantation was also unsuitable. She couldn’t handle such a project on her own, not unless Jiang Miao was willing to step in.

But Jiang Miao didn’t want to delve into technologies like organ cloning just yet.

That left Alzheimer’s, AIDS, hypertension, diabetes, and hyperuricemia.

After some thought, Jiang Miao spoke. "You could research hyperuricemia. To a large extent, that disease is a problem with the immune system. You could try developing some efficient, low-side-effect gene-targeting drugs for it."

"Hyperuricemia?" He Youwei nodded. "That’s a good direction. Finding the targets should be relatively easy. Okay, I’ll start researching specific drugs for hyperuricemia next."

After Shuya handed their daughter to the nanny, she reminded He Youwei with a smile, "You’d better be mentally prepared. Drug development is not that simple."

"I know." As a medical doctor with a PhD who had also interned at Peking Union Medical College Hospital for a time, she was naturally aware of the difficulties of drug development.

The three phases of clinical trials alone would take at least five to six years.

Coupled with the time spent on drug discovery, every new drug launched was the result of a marathon that lasted about ten years.

Most companies really couldn’t afford that kind of investment.

Only large pharmaceutical giants or state-supported enterprises could spend over a decade developing a single new drug.

For Hailufeng Company, however, it was a different story. The company had sufficient cash flow, and with the application of new technologies, He Youwei should make rapid progress in the early stages of drug development. The later three phases of clinical trials, even if rushed, would still take about three years. The entire process would be around four years, which was basically the fastest a new drug could get to market.

He Youwei stayed and chatted with Shuya for over two hours before taking the high-speed train back to the Capital City in the afternoon to celebrate the New Year.

Meanwhile, Jiang Miao was in the second-floor study.

He was observing a stock.

It was the stock of a Xiangjiang River bank.

Although the bank’s stock showed little volatility, Jiang Miao could see the undercurrents swirling beneath the surface.

For the past half-month, he had been secretly monitoring the bank’s stock and its various shareholders.

’Soros... Is he finally making a move?’

Today, seeing the short sellers secretly increasing their positions, Jiang Miao knew that the Quantum Fund had begun its attack. The reason this bank had been targeted by international speculative giants like the Quantum Fund was that it handled a significant amount of the Xiangjiang River government’s funds and business. It could be used as an indirect point of attack to bring down the region’s entire financial system.

In reality, the reason Soros dared to do this was that the Xiangjiang River’s cash reserves had been declining rapidly in recent years, creating a predicament where expenditures exceeded revenues.

However, the Xiangjiang River’s control over its financial industry was still relatively strict. Several large, core banks had already prepared numerous contingency plans for just such a scenario. After all, Soros had attacked the Xiangjiang River financial system once before.

The main reason Jiang Miao discovered their subtle moves was that during his previous investigation into the Bridger Organization, he had conducted a secret sweep of the various layouts of capital forces in the Xiangjiang River region.

It was during that sweep that he discovered the subtle maneuvers of Soros and his associates.

A major shareholder behind that bank had been secretly coerced into handing over a lot of confidential information, which included several pieces of very damaging dirt.

Jiang Miao discovered that the major shareholder’s stake had dropped from 12.7% last September to 5.4% this year, a cumulative reduction of 7.2%.

Meanwhile, international speculative capital like the Quantum Fund was secretly accumulating shares, preparing to make a big move.

However, at this moment, another force was also secretly accumulating the bank’s shares in the stock market.

This force was the offshore fund secretly controlled by Jiang Miao.

Over the past few years, he had used various methods to accumulate a total of 2.37 billion US Dollars in various offshore accounts. With these funds, he had registered an investment fund in the Cayman Islands called the "New Century Fund."

The managers of this investment fund were based in the Xiangjiang River region, but none of them knew that Jiang Miao was the boss behind the scenes.

As for whether this group would be obedient, he wasn’t too worried. The people he had chosen all had major dirt on them. If they dared to cause trouble, Jiang Miao just had to expose that dirt, and they would be in for a world of hurt.

Moreover, Jiang Miao’s intelligence-gathering capabilities left these people terrified into silence.

Through the New Century Fund, he had secretly opened numerous other offshore accounts. Right now, neither Soros nor the bank’s major shareholders knew that 13.9% of the shares were already secretly controlled by the New Century Fund.

And the funds secretly held by the New Century Fund now amounted to as much as 5.5 billion US Dollars.

The reason he was able to more than double his funds was mainly because Jiang Miao knew too much dirt on too many companies, thanks to the internet. By executing targeted takedowns of these companies, he could reap massive profits.

However, Jiang Miao didn’t operate too frequently. He would only target a few companies a month, and each time, he would make off with a few tens of millions of US Dollars and then pull out. He avoided making too much at once, which would have been too obvious.

Having accumulated 5.5 billion US Dollars and holding 13.9% of the shares, he could have launched a direct hostile takeover of this mid-sized bank, which only had a total share capital of just over 20 billion Hong Kong Dollars.

But Jiang Miao was in no rush to act.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

He was waiting for the Quantum Fund to cripple the bank, so he could then scoop it up at a bargain price.