Chapter 194: Micro-dust (10)

Some reporters were so eager to interview Young-Joon that they immediately got a visa to travel to China. However, he declined any interview requests as he was too busy writing a statement for the moratorium and preparing for the symposium. Now, all the interview requests were directed at A-GenBio’s legal and public relations team.

‘We’re so busy here, geez...’

Park Joo-Hyuk complained, but he somewhat enjoyed the situation. Now, it was time for someone to step up and offer an explanation about what was going on.

“Mr. Ryu instructed us about this when he left for China. Our legal team has gathered all the evidence related to this case.”

Park Joo-Hyuk agreed to be interviewed on behalf of the company. He was the head of the legal company at A-Bio, but now he worked in the legal team at A-Gen. Although he was not the leader, he agreed to an interview as the person who received Young-Joon’s request directly.

—I think everyone knows Doctor He Jiankui as the scientist who performed genetic modification, but many people are unfamiliar with the company Atmox. Could you tell us a little more about Atmox?

The reporters asked.

“Atmox is a small pharmaceutical company headquartered in Taiwan. A-Gen set up, then sold a small company in China when developing the anthrax weapon that was recently an issue, which became the predecessor. They moved to Taiwan when they started Atmox,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “And that company funded Doctor He Jiankui’s research.”

—I see. Now, I understand why you sued Atmox and Doctor He Jiankui for damages. How likely is it that you will win?

“To sue for damages, you first have to prove that the other party is at fault. You have to prove that the damages were caused by the other party’s intentional or negligent behavior. I think this can be easily understood without any legal interpretation since the intention is clear,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “You can’t genetically engineer an embryo by mistake, can you? On top of that, Doctor He Jiankui even explained the result of the experiment at the GSC International Conference, so there clearly was intentionality. Also, the damage caused to A-GenBio by this is clear, so the case can definitely be won. The question would be the amount.”

—Now that you mention it, the damages claim is staggering. I mean, it’s almost as much as some medium-sized companies are worth.

“That’s right.”

—When SG Electronics and Infall in the United States were in a patent war, the damages claim was only about two billion dollars. Could you tell us how you came to this amount?

“In these claims, the scope of damages is divided into three categories: active losses, passive losses, and compensatory damages. active losses refer to the diminution of actual property or unnecessary expenses. If you get in a car accident and have to pay for medical bills and repairs, that’s an active loss,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “We intend to sue them for active losses as well, but most of the ten billion dollars are for passive losses and some compensatory damages.”

—I see. Could you please explain passive losses first?

“Well, as you can imagine, if someone gets in a car accident and becomes hospitalized, making them unable to work, that person’s wage is considered a passive loss.”

—Did it become ten billion dollars because it’s Mr. Ryu’s wage?

“In a way, yes. Our CEO was relatively positive about the genetic modification of embryos. In fact, there were actually several projects in the works at A-Bio.”

—Mr. Ryu held a press conference and talked about gene modification before the anthrax terror, and he said that it is, to an extent, necessary for the advancement of medicine.

“That’s right. It could be the only way for parents with genetic disease genes, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, to have healthy babies.”

—Are you saying that all that research could be stopped?

“If they all stopped and we filed a claim for that, there is no way it would only be ten billion dollars.”

Park Joo-Hyuk chuckled.

“A-GenBio’s research will continue. But Cas9 is a technology that can correct almost any genetic diseases, and there are a lot of genetic diseases in the world. This meant that a lot of other universities and companies besides A-GenBio were going to join the fight against genetic diseases,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “But now, they won’t be able to do this research for a while, either because their funding is going to be cut off, or because they’re going to be frowned upon., Mr. Ryu’s moratorium statement is actually about making some regulations on their research, which could freeze Cas9 research as a whole and lead it into the Ice Age. This would then obviously reduce the amount of patent royalties that A-GenBio would receive from them.”

—Now I understand. The estimated loss is ten billion dollars?

“A-GenBio was working on a huge project to collect genomic data from one hundred million people. We have already secured a lot of data thanks to the cooperation of hospitals and universities from all over the world, and the increased voluntary participation of citizens as Mr. Ryu rose to stardom,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “Although the resolution is low, we’re now at a point where we can see the map and the big picture. I’m not too knowledgeable since I’m not a biologist, but according to Mr. Ryu and his team, they’ve found about one thousand three hundred disease-related DNA locations.”

—One thousand three hundred?

“Yes. And from those, we’ve picked out eighty-two diseases that have a heritability score of ninety or higher, and from those, we’ve picked out fifty-one diseases that don’t have a way to stop it from being inherited. In other words...,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “We are able to create a way to deliver a healthy baby for those fifty-one genetic diseases that we previously couldn’t do anything about.”

—I see. But are you allowed to reveal information like this?

The reporter asked with a chuckle.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Ryu gave us permission to talk about this,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “And I mentioned earlier that the scope of damages also includes compensatory damages in addition to active and passive losses. Corporations can also be victims of defamation and seek compensation.”

—Many people think that corporations can only claim damages to property and assets because they do not suffer emotional distress.

“Yes, but there are a number of precedents that have already recognized the damage to a company’s brand value in these cases and awarded damages for intangible losses other than property.”

—I see.

“Yes. Especially in the case of A-GenBio, our brand value is extremely high as the merger made us the largest company in the world. Still, we were modest and wrote a pretty low amount for compensatory damages.”

—How much did you claim?

“We claimed one hundred million dollars.”

—Is that lower? It still seems like a huge amount.

“It’s nothing when you consider the brand value of A-GenBio.”

—That makes sense. Do you think you will be awarded the compensation damages as well?

“Doctor He Jiankui probably knew how much ethical trouble the birth of a genetically modified baby would cause. Anyone can predict that,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “He also would have predicted the damage to A-GenBio’s brand image that would result from his experiment. I think it will be possible to be awarded compensation because it is relatively within the other party’s foreseeability, and it is reasonable.”

* * *

Wang Wei, the CEO of Atmox, was in incredible shock.

“Ten billion dollars? Who has ten billion dollars?”

In response to the astronomical amount, Wang Wei immediately hired the best law firm in Taiwan to fight back, but it wasn’t easy.

“We might be able to negotiate the amount of the claim to some extent, but ten billion dollars is not that outrageous. The only way we would be able to negotiate is to use foreseeability, which is included in the scope of damages, and say that we didn’t know the damages would be that big. But it’s unlikely to work because A-GenBio’s growth, their project to decode the genomic data of one hundred million people, and the capability of Cas9 to modify genes have already been reported and known for a long time. Atmox are biology experts, not ordinary citizens who don’t know the field,” said the lawyers advising Wang Wei. “It might be better to drag out the fight into a tedious battle. If it goes on, a company like A-GenBio will lose more than they gain, so there’s a higher chance that they will stop fighting and just focus on their work. But this will only happen when A-GenBio is letting Atmox go easy. If they try to keep fighting while draining resources, we’ll get tired and collapse first because they’re so much bigger.”

Wang Wei called He Jiankui countless times, but he couldn’t reach him. The Chinese media was turned upside down, and the country’s heroic scientist was condemned. The small consolation for He Jiankui and Atmox was that there were some Chinese people rallying around He Jiankui and attacking Young-Joon.

—Let’s drive out Ryu Young-Joon with the power of our Chinese people.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

—Chinese science belongs to Chinese scientists.

—Genetic modification was necessary research.

Conscious of the international community, the deputy minister of the Public Security Bureau decided to detain He Jiankui first. But as they were about to hit him, He Jiankui moved faster.

He Jiankui went to the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing, where Young-Joon was preparing to invite internationally renowned biologists and hold a symposium. He held a press conference here.

“I will participate in the symposium being held for the declaration of the moratorium,” He Jiankui said. “I will refute what is going on right now in front of the world’s top biologists because science is all about the facts. Let’s put aside the bothersome stuff about the ten billion lawsuit and a breach of research ethics. Let’s just look at the scientific problem and only discuss that because that will clear up all the doubts. The point of this situation is that the modification of CCR5 is not harmful to humans and was necessary to prevent the spread of HIV!”

He Jiankui shouted into the camera.

“I heard the genetically modified baby is in very bad condition!” one of the reporters exclaimed.

“It’s just a temporary problem. It’s a normal illness that any baby can have, and the CCR5 modification itself is not a problem. The Delta-32 mutation introduced already exists in the natural world, and a lot of people already have it,” He Jiankui replied. “How can you prove that this mutation negatively impacted the baby’s health? The burden of proof is on Doctor Ryu. If he fails to do so, I want him to drop all charges.”

As He Jiankui continued to speak, he noticed something and stopped. All the reporters turned in unison. It was because Young-Joon was walking out of the conference room where the symposium was going to be held.

“It’s Ryu Young-Joon!”

The reporters shouted.

Young-Joon walked up next to He Jiankui.

“Ah...”

He Jiankui stepped back.

“I just stopped by because my name was called. I don’t intend to interrupt,” Young-Joon said as he picked up the microphone. “I will do as Doctor He said right now: if I fail to prove it, I’ll drop the lawsuit.”

“...”

“At the symposium, we’ll be presenting the interim results of the Genome Project, where we are decoding the genome of one hundred million people, which is the genome sequencing data of about thirty-one million people. Among them, there were roughly one hundred six thousand people with Delta-32, a mutation in CCR5. We synthesized their disease and health data, and then compared them to controls of the same race, age, and gender that didn’t have Delta-32 using a technique called GWAS. This allows us to track whether there are adverse effects highly correlated with those with a congenital defect, and we will present the results.”

“...”

Everyone at the press conference froze.

“Because like Doctor He Jiankui said, science is all about the facts,” Young-Joon said. “The symposium is open to non-scientists, so everyone is welcome to participate.”