Chapter 21: The Ambitious One (2)

“You want me to leave?” Young-Joon asked again.

“Yes. There’s no reason for a talented person like you to rot here.”

Cheon Ji-Myung grinned. Bae Sun-Mi and Park Dong-Hyun also nodded slightly.

Park Dong-Hyun added, “Actually, I also thought about the same thing. Doctor Ryu, to be honest, our team will get berated again after you leave, but we’re okay since we’re used to it. We don’t want to weigh you down.”

“I agree. I only saw you for the first time today, but I really don’t think you should stay here if you were really the one who made the iPSCs,” Bae Sun-Mi added.

Young-Joon did not say anything and just fiddled with his glass.

“What’s your dream, Doctor Ryu?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked.

“My dream?”

“Is it a little weird to ask this?”

“No, not at all. My dream... Is to save more people by curing more diseases.”

Cheon Ji-Myung chuckled. “What an innocent dream.”

“Like a true scientist,” Koh Soon-Yeol said as he drank his Sprite.

“But we’ve forgotten all about that passion,” Cheon Ji-Myung said.

“Our only dreams, like me or Lead Bae Sun-Mi here, is just to make sure our kids grow up nicely and make sure they get married.”

“To be honest, Doctor Ryu, I think you’re too good to stay at A-Gen, let alone our team,” Park Dong-Hyun added.

“But where else could I go?” Young-Joon asked.

“Hm.”

“All the smaller pharmaceutical companies are under A-Gen’s umbrella. Realistically, they lack the infrastructure. I can’t set all that up and grow the company. Look at the iPSCs made. At A-Gen, I can get genes or viruses in a day if I request to buy it, right? It would have taken one or two weeks if I did it at a smaller company because they wouldn’t have a good enough supply chain.”

“That is true.”

“And I have to now work on growing organs or differentiating it into different tissues, but there aren’t any companies other than A-Gen that have those kinds of facilities or research support.”

There was a moment of depressed silence among the team.

“I guess there aren’t any substitutes for A-Gen realistically,” Cheon Ji-Myung said.

Young-Joon would just buy a couple pieces of experimental equipment if he needed them. However, research infrastructure didn’t just mean equipment, but also human resources. Something like that was difficult to solve with money alone.

The only reason the Life Creation Department had people like Park Dong-Hyun, Jung Hae-Rim, or Koh Soon-Yeol was that it was a top-level pharmaceutical company like A-Gen. It was difficult to find scientists who could differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells into muscle cells, produce methylation data, or complete exome sequencing in just a few days. Reaction Chemistry and Cell Bio were good companies, but they weren’t

this

good.

If Young-Joon didn’t have a technician, it meant that he had to do everything himself. For example, if he needed a genetically modified marmoset monkey, he would have to create, grow, and maintain it himself. All he had to do at A-Gen was call the Experiment Animal Resource Center.

The biggest problem of all was that the CEOs of those small companies could be controlled by A-Gen, like Celligener. No company would be able to function normally if the head was being controlled.

If Young-Joon was to start his own pharmaceutical company, he could stop it from being controlled by A-Gen, but he would have to take the long way around. First of all, he would have to apply to the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to establish a biology lab. He had to obtain permission to use genetically modified organisms for each unit of the laboratory.

There would be five documents needed to purchase every piece of lab equipment, and if he wanted to purchase experimental animals or a cell line, he would have to write a plan starting with the supplier and manager, and a written plan of the product’s transportation, experimentation, and disposal. Management and regulation was picky because leakages could be dangerous.

No matter how exceptional Rosaline was, there was nothing she could do about the examiners of the government. If Young-Joon had to set up every single one of those components, it would take five years for him to start one experiment that he wanted to do.

“The executives would keep me from leaving after all the attention I get from the stem cells. Well, that would make me feel good, but there aren’t any realistic alternatives,” Young-Joon replied.

“Maybe in Korea, but there are other companies just as big as A-Gen overseas,” Park Dong-Hyun said.

“There is. But they’re not that different from A-Gen. You know that,” Young-Joon replied.

If the management at A-Gen were satans, the people in foreign pharmaceutical companies could make them retire; their evilness was on a different level. It was common for them to do human experiments on minors in underdeveloped countries who hadn’t been registered in the system, or hold human lives hostage and threaten governments because they wanted to make profits one hundred times the manufacturing price.

Even if they treated scientists better, Young-Joon didn’t want to work for a place like that.

“I interned at Conson & Colson, and... You’re better off not going,” Jung Hae-Rim replied.

“Some people say that a familiar asshole is better than a foreign asshole.”

“Or just be a professor instead of staying at a company,” Cheon Ji-Myung suggested. He then added, “With your talent and a paper on stem cells, Jungyoon University will invite you to become a professor.”

“But professors don’t have a lot of power. All they can do is just produce basic technology; they can’t make something that can be commercialized. I want to help the world.”

“But if you work here, you’ll only help the people at the top of A-Gen. Not the world.”

“I won’t do that again since they did that to me in the Anticancer Drug Research Department.”

“No matter how smart you are, you’re an employee being paid by this company. Whatever you do will become the company’s, and the executives and the shareholders own the company.”

“They will never fill their pockets because of me.”

“But isn’t the patent of the iPSCs going to be distributed among the shareholders?”

“No, it’s not.”

There was a moment of silence. Bae Sun-Mi froze with her glass in her hand.

“What are you talking about? Do you think you can do whatever you want? All the patents that are developed at the company are theirs. To be honest, it irritates me that you are filling their pockets.”

“The technology is the company’s.”

“... I’m getting really anxious all of a sudden. How did you fill out the patent application?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked.

“I wrote my name as the primary holder of the patent. The secondary is Soon-Yeol-sunbae. The next is Dong-Hyun-sunbae and Hae-Rim-sunbae. I decided this based on the importance of the data. I know it’s unfortunate, but Manager Cheon and Lead Bae, you didn’t get a share because you weren’t at the company, nor did you do any experiments. I wrote whatever I wanted for the shareholding percentage.”

Clang!

There was an obnoxious sound as Park Dong-Hyun dropped his glass on the table.

“Oh sorry. My hands are trembling.”

“Doctor Ryu, did you really write that? You wrote the shareholding percentage yourself?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh my...”

The way A-Gen published patents was unique. The scientist who was the primary holder developed the technology and then filed a patent application. At this stage, the primary holder was able to specify the shareholding percentage.

This rule was actually invented when A-Gen was a startup company. They created this rule on the ideology that it was a scientist-centered company, but it actually didn’t mean anything as the executives evaluated it after it was filled out in the attorney’s office. If they didn’t really like the ratio the primary wrote, they sent it back, or they called them into the executives’ office, crushed them, and then made them change it. The employees had no choice but to follow as they had no power.

When this kind of thing went on for decades, the fact that the scientist could specify the shareholding percentage became kind of a useless, dead rule.

Nowadays, most scientists didn’t even fill out the shareholding ratio when they filled out the patent; they just submitted it to the Research Support Department. Then, the Research Support Department would fill out the ratio per the orders of the lab director and send it to the attorney’s office. The young scientists thought that was the rule.

There was a reason why there wasn’t much dissatisfaction among the scientists. First of all, most patents didn’t really make much money as most of them weren’t really commercialized; that’s why no one cared.

And in the case of commercializable patents that made money, which rarely happened, it took several years and dozens of scientists days and nights to publish. This meant that patents that made money were destined to be large projects, so they consumed a lot of money, manpower, and time. If Young-Joon started the iPSCs without Rosaline, how much resources would A-Gen have had to pour into them?

The only time this kind of patent came out was when the company knew about the research project very well from the beginning and supported it fully. When it became like that, it became meaningless to split the share between the primary scientists; it was difficult to give everyone a share when over two hundred scientists participated.

Of course, a few of the prominent contributors received a share in the decimals, and the rest was compensated as a bonus. The rest of the share? It was either given to the company or split among the shareholders.

No one had any complaints since it was also right in terms of research ethics; they could not ignore the contributions of the company, the lab director or the Research Support Department for supporting them for one project over a few years.

However, it was different in Young-Joon’s case. He could have done this because it was such an exceptional situation.

Cheon Ji-Myung broke out in cold sweat.

“You’re crazy... You filled out the share ratio yourself. And you didn’t put Gil Hyung-Joon, the lab director, or the CTO? And you sent it to the attorney’s office?”

“Doctor Ryu, you have to include the executives’ names...” Bae Sun-Mi said to Young-Joon in worry.

“What are you talking about?” Young-Joon said with a straight face. “Those people did not even know that we were doing that sort of work until I presented the results at the seminar. So why should they get a share? That’s against research ethics.”

There was silence at the table once more.

“

H... Honmono...

”[1] Koh Soon-Yeol suddenly mumbled. “Not just a picky person by the book, but... This person... is really

honmono...

”

“Science should be done according to the rules. It is a field that is based on objectivity, and it should be the most pure, right?” Young-Joon asked.

“I agree,” Cheon Ji-Myung replied. “But I don’t know if Gil Hyung-Joon or the other executives will agree with you. Nicholas could be okay with it in this case since he’s a true scientist and by the book like you, Doctor Ryu.”

“You skipped the Research Support Department and directly gave it to the attorney’s office in charge of Lab Six, right?” Bae Sun-Mi asked.

“Yes,” Young-Joon replied.

“Then, it will go to the Research Support Department as soon as the papers are finished and then to Gil Hyung-Jooon. He’s going to hit the roof...”

“I’ll deal with it myself. You don’t need to worry.”

“Explain the royalty ratio in detail,” Cheon Ji-Myung asked like he was worried.

“I saw that no one individual could take more than ten percent of a patent that had high potential. So, I took ten percent, and Dong-Hyun-sunbae, Hae-Rim-sunbae, and Soon-Yeol-sunbae got three percent each,” Young-Joon said.

“We got three percent?” Jung Hae-Rim was shocked, as she didn’t even expect to be given any shares.

“Of course. It’s only right you receive a share since you contributed to the research. I would have even given Kim Hyun-Taek a share if he did the experiment,” Young-Joon replied.

“Then what about the rest?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked.

“Since we used A-Gen facilities to develop it, and since they will publish the patent, I gave A-Gen and Lab Six 0.5 percent each.”

“Then is that eighty percent left?”

“There is a clause in the laws related to in-house patents that at least eighty percent of the share must be given to the company. So, I put the remaining eighty percent as funding for the Life Creation Department.”

“Department funding?”

“By company, they mean A-Gen as a whole or one of the six labs. I actually can’t write it by department, but I did it anyway. I didn’t want a department like Health Food using this money. I will write a separate contract to confirm that funding and get the final approval in my name.”

“...”

“Young-Joon-

kun

, did you come from the future?” Koh Soon-Yeol asked.

“Ah~ I’m not. What do you even mean?”

“It feels like a sixty-year-old executive has returned in the body of a young man and is having his bloody revenge...”

“Do you really think that’s going to pass, Doctor Ryu? It’s never going to happen since it’s an invention on the job...” Jung Hae-Rim’s voice was full of worry.

“Just wait and see. I have something in mind,” Young-Joon replied with a smile.

“Doctor Ryu,” Cheon Ji-Myung called Young-Joon. “If it is your dream to make another drug and save someone as soon as possible, it would be faster for you to give those shares up to the executives and ask for their cooperation.”

“That’s true.”

“But fighting with management to get individual research funding and approval... It seems like you have ulterior motives. What is it that you want, Doctor Ryu?”

“What do I want?”

“I want to help you if it’s something I can help you with.”

“Well, I’ll just tell you. I trust our members and other people will probably just scoff and brush it off if they hear it. My dream is what I told you before,” Young-Joon said. “And I am thinking of becoming the chief executive officer of A-Gen to achieve that goal. I will also become the largest shareholder in order to stabilize management.”

“...”

There was nothing but silence at the table.

“Does it seem a little outlandish? But that’s the only way I can think of. There aren’t a lot of companies that have better hardware than A-Gen, even overseas. The problem is that the operating system here has a virus. I am going to format the hard drive and install a new one.”

Park Dong-Hyun raised his hand.

“I’m not going to talk about how it’s difficult, or it’s not possible or anything like that. To be honest, the iPSCs were also sci-fi-level stuff, right? And you got it done in a week? I am on your side, Doctor Ryu.”

“You might be hired as a proxy executive officer, but it won’t be easy becoming the largest shareholder. That’s basically saying that you’re going to become the owner of the company. You know that, right?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked Young-Joon.

“Yes.”

“Even if you have that much money, it’s hard to buy that many shares. They’ll stop it to protect their executive rights.”

“Right now, sure. But a lot of things are going to change now. It wouldn’t work if A-Gen had been an ordinary company, but A-Gen is a research-based company, right? I’m going to borrow A-Gen’s research infrastructure, start an affiliate company that can study iPSCs, and build that to take over A-Gen.”

“Ha. It would be good if it worked out, but... Realistically...”

Cheon Ji-Myung scoffed.

“Doctor Ryu, when iPSCs become commercialized and get used to cure all kinds of different diseases, I think your reputation and wealth will skyrocket high enough for you to try for executive rights,” Park Dong-Hyun said. “When that happens, please make me the executive manager of the Life Creation Department. I’m sucking up to you in advance.”

Cheon Ji-Myung glared at him like he was being ridiculous.

“Then what about me?”

“It’ll be in like twenty years, so you should retire and go down to the country somewhere. You know, harvest some winter spinach, watch your grandchildren sing and dance...”

“He’s insane...” Cheon Ji-Myung said.

Young-Joon chuckled.

“It won’t take twenty years. I will get it done as soon as possible.”

“Alright. I will do everything I can to help if you are going to be able to do everything you want, Doctor Ryu,” Cheon Ji-Myung promised.

“Me too,” Jung Hae-Rim added.

“I can start right now. Doctor Ryu, what should I do?” As Park Dong-Hyun joked around, Bae Sun-Mi glanced at him.

“Dong-Hyun is super upbeat today. Why is he so excited?”

“It’s just so exciting to think that Doctor Ryu will become the head of A-Gen. Doctor Ryu, please reform this corrupt company and lead it. I have a love-hate relationship with this place now.”

“Anyway, the thing we know for sure is that Gil Hyung-Joon will come to our department with a metal pipe in his hand around Monday after reading the patent documents?” Cheon Ji-Myung said.

“I’m guessing a hammer,” Park Dong-Hyun added.

“An electric chainsaw,” Jung Hae-Rim also added.

“...”

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s drink.”

Young-Joon raised his glass.

1.

Honmono

means “the real thing” in Japanese. ?