Chapter 38: Independence (5)

“We have a problem.”

Ji Kwang-Man went straight to Yoon Dae-Sung and told him everything that had happened until now. But there was no way Yoon Dae-Sung also had a solution either.

The fact that Young-Joon was going to be appointed as a director was already confirmed. It had leaked through an unknown route and was put on the editorial page of a major newspaper company. And in the meantime, A-Gen hadn’t denied it once. It was because they liked the image of being an open-minded and progressive company that gave a dramatic promotion to a talented young employee and gave them a seat at the director’s table. They couldn’t push back the appointment now.

“

Sigh

... Let’s go with it for now. I don’t know where Doctor Ryu would get that kind of money, but even if he did, we could just stop him from creating an affiliate company at the board meeting. We don’t have to propose the idea.”

The separation from a company and the creation of an affiliate company happened in two steps: it needed to be first brought up during a board meeting and then be approved in the shareholders' meeting. Young-Joon couldn’t even attend the board meeting since he was an unregistered director. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was held up in the board meeting and not passed over to the shareholders.

“But I feel like he’s going to do something during the shareholders' meeting...” Ji Kwang-Man said.

“Do what?”

“I don’t know, but I’m anxious. What if he announces something about starting an affiliate company in front of the shareholders during the meeting?”

“Ah, that’s going too overboard with just a cure for glaucoma. The shareholders won’t react to that.”

Yoon Dae-Sung laughed and patted Ji Kwang-Man on the back.

“Let’s go with this for now.”

* * *

This was the largest A-Gen shareholders' meeting that was ever held; there were almost five times more people than usual. Mom-and-pop investors who had only invested small amounts in A-Gen had come to see Young-Joon. Among them, there were people who only had a single share as well.

There were three types of people at the shareholders' meeting. The majority of them were people who had benefited greatly from Young-Joon; they wanted to come see the golden calf.

The second group were people who were suffering from glaucoma or family members; they wanted to meet Young-Joon in person and show gratitude since he was able to greatly improve their quality of life.

The last group were people who had other neurological disorders or their families. There was no way they would be able to hear any good news in today’s presentation since it wasn’t like stem cell therapies were created in one day, but they were able to have hope as they had a base technology of induced pluripotent stem cells. That’s what they were here for.

“... And so, we would like to appoint Ryu Young-Joon as an in-house director. He was recommended by the board of directors, and the candidate’s brief history is as described in the shareholders’ meeting notice,” CEO Yoon Dae-Sung said.

“Director candidate Ryu Young-Joon has contributed greatly to the company’s development by creating induced pluripotent stem cell and optic nerve differentiation technology and successfully finishing clinical trials for glaucoma. Are there any shareholders who object to this?”

“No!”

“Of course, not!”

The shareholders shouted in their seats. Of course they had no objections as Young-Joon had increased company stocks by fifty percent in two days.

“Thank you. Then, I declare that Ryu Young-Joon’s appointment as an in-house director has been approved as recommended by the board.”

Clap clap clap.

The crowd gave a round of applause. Young-Joon, who was sitting on one side of the stage, smiled as he saw someone wave their hand in the crowd. Cheon Ji-Myung, Bae Sun-Mi, Park Dong-Hyun, Jung Hae-Rim, and Koh Soon-Yeol were there. They had come to congratulate him on becoming appointed as a director.

Behind them were Choi Myung-Joon and Seo Yoon-Ju. He had come to show Young-Joon he was there, and she had come to spend time with Koh Soon-Yeol.

‘They’re interesting people.’

Young-Joon chuckled as he looked at them.

It was now four o’clock in the afternoon. The meeting was coming to an end. At the end of the shareholders’ meeting, A-Gen usually gave the appointed director some time for a short speech.

Young-Joon walked up to the podium and grabbed the mic.

“Hello, shareholders,” Young-Joon said.

“I’m sure you have heard that I used induced pluripotent stem cells to differentiate somatic cells into optic nerve cells and succeeded in curing glaucoma with it in clinical trials.”

Young-Joon met eyes with each and every shareholder sitting in the hall.

“The reason why I succeeded in this important research is not because I was outstanding, it was because a lot of people at A-Gen helped me. If I did it alone, I wouldn’t have even been able to start clinical trials; I wouldn’t have been approved.”

Young-Joon’s voice was full of confidence. Now, it was time for this meeting to be turned upside down.

“So, my next research is something for A-Gen. While studying the history of the establishment and ideology of A-Gen, I came to know how the late Doctor Yoon Chul-Joong, the founder of A-Gen, spent his last days.”

Yoon Dae-Sung froze. It was something that had come up multiple times in his book.

His father, Yoon Chul-Joong, had suffered from Alzheimer type dementia. It was the humble end of the greatest intellectual who led Korea at that time; he spent his last days in loneliness, losing all his brilliant knowledge and wisdom.

From then on, Yoon Dae-Sung’s life goal was to cure Alzheimer’s.

“I am working on the next treatment based on stem cells to repay CEO Yoon and the shareholders who have raised A-Gen this far.”

Young-Joon walked over to the computer on one side of the stage and plugged in his USB. Experimental data began to come up one by one.

The first one that came up with a nerve cell with a unique shape. It had a dyed nucleus in the middle and his dendrites and axons coming out of it.

“This is a neuron,” Young-Joon said.

“I have succeeded in differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells into neurons. I am going to cure Alzheimer type dementia with this.”

The crowd was dead silent as if someone had thrown cold water on them. The crowd was frozen as if they had been hit in the head.

“T-Take a picture.”

As soon as someone among the reporters spoke...

Click! Flash!

Young-Joon was suddenly bombarded with a shower of camera flashes. The reporters’ hands trembled. Compared to a glaucoma cure, this was on another level.

Was it true? Was it really possible to cure Alzheimer’s?

Young-Joon added, “The development has progressed considerably. I would like to give you a brief report now. In the body, there is a biomaterial called activator protein C, and I have put 3K3A-APC, a variant of that biomaterial, inside iPSCs using the AAV virus. Right now, I have finished applying for a patent, and I am in the middle of doing animal experiments.”

“Doctor Ryu! What do you think will be the clinical success rate?” One of the reporters shouted.

“I think it will be one hundred percent.”

“And I think I will be able to cure most neurodegenerative dementia, not only Alzheimer’s. I believe that it will be applicable to Parkinson’s and strokes,” Young-Joon answered in certainty.

“Holy shit...” One of the lab directors murmured.

There was some commotion amongst the mom-and-pop investors in the audience. People were sending texts in excitement, some were crying into their handkerchiefs.

“After you differentiate it into neurons, how are you going to put the cells into the patient’s brain?” One of the reporters asked.

“I am not going to use fully differentiated neurons. I have controlled the expression of the AKKT gene and created small iPSCs that are sixty percent smaller than regular stem cells. I have attached a caverlin ligand on the cell membrane to allow it to pass the blood brain barrier.”

“Are you worried that it will go somewhere else and not the brain?”

“The stem cells I created have glycoprotein RVG29, which leads it into the cerebrum in the bloodstream. Also, it cannot survive in other tissues, eliminating the risk of it developing into a tumor. I am going to treat Alzheimer’s by administering the stem cells into the veins and sending it to the brain, then administer 3K3A-APC and differentiate it into neurons in the lesions.”

“...”

The reporters’ hands moved as fast as lighting to write down Young-Joon’s presentation. Cameras flashed at him from all over.

Jung Hae-Rim showed Park Dong-Hyun her phone. It was the real-time hot issues list on Naver.[1]

1. Ryu Young-Joon

2. Alzheimer’s

3. A-Gen.

4. Ryu Young-Joon stem cells

5. A-Gen shareholders’ meeting

...

“He’s actually insane. When did he even do that?” Cheon Ji-Myung whispered from behind.

“Doctor Ryu has been holed up in the animal experiment lab with Lead Bae and doing only that recently. He goes into the protein engineering lab once every two days and creates recombination proteins. He’s spending the nights there. I think the employees there also didn’t sleep. But they probably didn’t know what they were making,” Jung Hae-Rim said.

“Look at this.”

Park Dong-Hyun put up his phone. A-Gen stocks were skyrocketing like crazy. They were up around two percent compared to thirty minutes ago, but now, it was over a five percent increase.

“I can see it hitting an all-time high in two hours,” Park Dong-Hyun said.

The bald, middle-aged man sitting beside him glanced at him briefly. After he pulled out his phone and checked his stock app, he showed it to his friend sitting beside him, unable to hide his excitement.

The hall was suddenly buzzing. Young-Joon waited for them to calm down, then said, “But if we were to treat Alzheimer’s, it would be too much work for the pipeline that one single department is responsible for. I would like to separate this into another company and lead it myself for the efficiency of work and the project.”

Ji Kwang-Man covered his face with his hands and lowered his head. This was what he was afraid of. This was it.

Young-Joon said, “The company I will start is an investment company, A-Bio. The creation of this company is under way through my personal lawyer. Yesterday, I paid twenty billion won of my personal money as a stock subscription. I did not burden A-Gen at all as they did not invest.”

Young-Joon showed a bunch of documents to the audience.

“This is the subscription receipt. I am showing you this to show you my sincerity.”

Ji Kwang-Man sighed.

“He managed to... Where did he get that kind of money anyway?”

Young-Joon went on.

“A-Bio will be an affiliate of A-Gen and will contribute greatly to their development. They will also be the pioneer of the international stem cell therapy market in the future. Also, as a director of A-Gen, I will do my best to promote A-Gen’s rights, and I am also considering giving some of A-Bio’s shares to A-Gen to the extent where it will not affect my management rights. As such, the shareholders of A-Gen do not have to worry about the stocks of A-Gen falling due to the advancement of the affiliate company.”

“Is this already confirmed?” One of the reporters asked.

“It will be on the agenda for the next board meeting. We will decide then how much of A-Bio shares A-Gen will take,” Young-Joon replied.

“I plan to confirm this notion by opening a special shareholders’ meeting afterward. I am considering distributing some of my shares to the shareholders who exercise their voting right and approve of the establishment of A-Bio. The amount that will go to each person will be extremely small, even far below the decimal point, but within a few years, it will be huge enough to buy a condo.”

“Wow...”

The shareholders looked at him differently. Again, there was commotion in the hall. Cameras flashed again.

The hot issue list on Naver was changing by the second from Ryu Young-Joon, to Alzheimer’s, and then to A-Bio.

“Fuck...”

Ji Kwang-Man quietly cursed.

Young-Joon was stating that he was going to protect the current A-Gen stocks and give them the new company’s stocks if they approve. On top of that, the new company was going to be built and run by Young-Joon and was going to be an affiliate of A-Gen. The shareholders would have to be insane to reject that notion. No, the shareholders looked like they were going to approve of it this instant.

Ji Kwang-Man turned around and looked at the in-house directors. Even some of the lab directors who were relatively less loyal to the CEO, such as Lab Five Director Joo Hwa-Young, looked like they were thinking about it.

“But what was he talking about when he said it was on the agenda? Why haven’t I heard anything?” In bewilderment, Gil Hyung-Joon asked Koh Yoo-Sung, who was sitting beside him.

“Nicholas.”

Yoon Dae-Sung turned around to face the CTO.

“Are you helping Doctor Ryu?”

“I like Doctor Ryu, but I’m not involved in this.”

“It was me.”

Kim Young-Hoon raised his hand. He smiled in a smirking way.

He was someone that the SG Group, a major company in Korea that had six percent of shares, had put on the board. SG Group was also doing pharmaceuticals; it was called SG Pharmaceuticals.

Recently, Young-Joon sold his new flu drug patent to SG Pharmaceuticals for one hundred billion won. It had come into his bank account just yesterday, and he had invested twenty billion won as soon as he had it. He had actually gotten more than he thought; it was probably because he was worth a lot more after creating iPSCs, optic nerve treatment, and a glaucoma cure.

And in the process of selling the flu drug, Young-Joon got to know Kim Young-Hoon.

“To be honest, the SG Group is hoping A-Gen abandons Doctor Ryu this time. Haha. We’re thinking about scouting him to SG Pharmaceuticals. Doctor Ryu is insisting on staying at A-Gen since SG Pharmaceuticals is nowhere as big as A-Gen and has crappy infrastructure, but he’ll go to SG Pharmaceuticals if you abandon him. The CEO of SG is also considering investing trillions of won into Doctor Ryu,” Kim Young-Hoon said.

“Anyway, we are going to put it on the board meeting agenda. We’re registered directors of A-Gen, right? Although it seems like Doctor Ryu cannot participate in board meetings. And in this situation, you’re not going to be able to cut it off at the board meeting either. Why don’t we set a date for the special shareholders’ meeting?”

The faces of the people who supported Yoon Dae-Sung turned sour.

It would be beneficial for SG Pharmaceuticals just for Young-Joon to create an affiliate company and leave A-Gen, which was growing rapidly. SG Group didn’t have a good relationship with A-Gen in the first place, so they didn’t have a way to collaborate with Young-Joon even if they wanted to, but if Young-Joon became independent, it was possible.

Ji Kwang-Man’s hand trembled.

‘Why is the CEO or other people not getting this?’

There was something else that was seriously dangerous.

Young-Joon said that he was going to give a part of A-Bio to A-Gen in order to protect the shares that the A-Gen shareholders have. It was a plan to get approval for the separation of the affiliate company, but the situation was seriously twisted. Young-Joon was the one getting profit while the risk was taken on by A-Gen.

On the other hand, if A-Bio failed to begin due to A-Gen’s rejection? Young-Joon would leave after as SG Group poured trillions of won into him, and A-Gen stock prices would plummet, causing irreversible damage to Yoon Dae-Sung’s management abilities.

If A-Gen didn’t take A-Bio’s shares as he stated? Yoon Dae-Sung’s management abilities would also take a huge hit as people would say that they couldn’t take it even when Young-Joon was handing it to them. This would also be irreversible damage.

What this meant was that whatever Young-Joon requested in turn for A-Bio’s shares, A-Gen had to give it to him to help start his affiliate company.

Young-Joon was so clever that he just may be the Devil’s child. Ji Kwang-Man imagined what that monster would request in turn for A-Bio’s shares in this situation. It was probably going to be an exchange of company shares, A-Gen for A-Bio.

‘Fxxk.’

Young-Joon already had four percent.

If, if the worst happened, Young-Joon could be the CEO of A-Gen and A-Bio.

1. Naver is a popular Korean search engine. It has a function that shows the frequently searched words real-time. ?