Chapter 65: The First Product (6)

“There is a report from the CIA that this was ordered from you,” said the reporter.

“No. I had no idea.”

“Is that really a tumor?”

“It’s a tumor! It is!” Luca Taylor shouted with his jaw clenched.

“CEO Ryu Young-Joon claims that it is cell aggregation, and he has put his position of CEO on the line that it will disappear in two weeks. Can you do that, too?”

“If stem cells aggregate, they disappear quickly! This is a tumor!”

“He says that it dissolves safer and for a longer period of time because it is a destruction mechanism triggered by TP54. Do you have anything to say?”

Luca Taylor gulped. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t say a word.

“Is the patient at Schumatix India right now?”

The reporters began throwing questions at him again.

“Please tell us about the patient.”

“The White House Press Secretary is announcing the data obtained by the CIA. They say they have recordings obtained through the recording devices in Schumatix India’s stem cell lab, experiment logs and cell morphology pictures. They are saying that there is no data about optic nerves.”

“Did you ever actually make stem cells? There is a recording of Doctor Daniel speaking with a person named Andrew on the phone. They talk about only treating the cell with the first kit.”

“Does Professor Martin know about this? Did he also know that it was stem cells he was injecting?”

The atmosphere became more hostile. Luca Taylor felt cold sweat run down his neck.

“I will end the press conference here.”

He quickly ended the conference and got up to leave. But even as he was walking to his car, reporters followed him, asking him for answers.

“Please give us a response!”

“Mr. Taylor! Is what Doctor Ryu announced at the press conference true?”

“Who is Andrew?”

“What are you going to do if that really isn’t a tumor and disappears in two weeks like Mr. Ryu said?”

Luca Taylor silently escaped the reporters with the escort of his security guards.

“Sir! Please explain this!”

“You cannot just go. Give us an explanation!”

The reporters even blocked the front of his car. They clung to the windows and pounded on the hood of his car, demanding an explanation.

This was a big deal. Schumatix, which was based in Switzerland, was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. A shocking allegation that they caused cancer in a patient’s eye was made against a place that should be leading the advancement of medicine. It was just the reporters going wild right now, but in a few hours, the whole world would be turned upside down. And there was a high chance that Schumatix would become a heinous criminal. They had to fix the situation somehow.

The car drove away after the security guards pulled the reporters off. Luca Taylor pulled out his phone and called someone.

—Hello!

Someone was yelling urgently over the phone.

“Andrew! Where are you?”

—I was just about to call you. Sir! What’s going on?

“I asked where you were.”

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

—I’m near Schumatix India. I’m in an alley a little far away from the hospital.

Andrew replied.

He visited the hospital, but soon left in horror, as the hospital was filled with police. Andrew’s face was on TV; he was being wanted. At first, he couldn’t believe his eyes, but it was real. Right away, he ran to an old and deserted alley that was to the east of the hospital. He was first going to escape people’s sight before doing anything else.

Andrew shouted into his phone, “Sir, we’re in trouble right now! There are police everywhere. They’re looking for me! What the hell happened?”

—... We failed, Andrew. Get rid of that patient. That’s the only way.

Luca Taylor’s voice was filled with a mixed feeling of despair.

“No! I can’t. The police are covering the entire place.”

—You have to find a way somehow! The longer that bastard is alive, the less we can get out of this. We fell into a trap. Ryu Young-Joon that bastard dug a trap and waited for us!

Luca Taylor shouted.

—The tumor will gradually disappear from that patient’s eyeball with time. If that happens, it’s all over.

“Even if you say that, it’s physically impossible. I don’t know what happened, but there are ten Indian police beside that patient right now.”

Crash!

As Andrew was walking in the alley, he collided with someone with his shoulder. A muscular man offered his hand to Andrew, who had fallen back.

“Sorry.”

“Hmph.”

Instead of holding his hand, Andrew grabbed his phone that was on the floor and got up.

“Hello? Sir? Sorry, I bumped into…”

As Andrew was about to walk away, the man called him.

“You dropped something.”

He pointed to where Andrew fell. As he reflexively turned his head…

Crack!

Andrew felt a sharp pain on his waist and fainted.

“Target secured.” CIA agent Robert said into his walkie-talkie. He turned off his taser and picked up Andrew’s phone. Luca Taylor, who was sly as a fox, already hung up, but it didn’t matter. Robert was going to suck out all the phone records and contacts on Andrew’s phone.

Robert collected the phone as evidence and loaded Andrew in his car.

* * *

[What is in Patient Ardip’s eye: tumor or stem cell aggregation?]

[Luca Taylor, CEO of Schumatix, orders Schumatix India to administer stem cells in the patient’s eye to induce a tumor…]

[Schumatix and India’s sour relationship, starting with Gleevec…]

[Nobel Prize recipient Carpentier heavily criticizes Luca Taylor, commenting that he “cannot forgive Luca Taylor; a parasite that undermines medicine.”]

The world’s attention was drawn to this issue as news articles poured out. On issues with two opposing opinions, the side that released more provocative information was at an advantage.

The story that the glaucoma treatment could cause cancer was quite provocative, but the argument from the other side released at the same time was more impactful: Schumatix induced a tumor development in a patient. Plus, Young-Joon already began with a powerful piece of evidence, as the White House Press Secretary announced the CIA’s report and hinted at sanctions against the activities of Schumatix, a multinational pharmaceutical company, in the United States.

On top of that, public opinion of them became worse as the evil acts Schumatix committed in the past started coming out.

[Do you know Neural Clinics, the unfortunate venture pharmaceutical company that was destroyed by Schumatix’s sabotage?]

[Why did Schumatix have conflict with the Indian government? What is Gleevec, a drug that has a net profit one hundred times the manufacturing price?]

[The tyranny of big pharmaceutical companies like Schumatix: What kind of evil do they do to venture companies?]

[Schumatix does not research for patients; they work for money.]

[CIA arrests Andrew, Luca Taylor’s subordinate. CIA obtains phone records and messages with Luca Taylor.]

[Luca Taylor sends four billion won to Andrew since 2011 using a burner bank account. Suspicions of embezzlement.]

As news headlines came out one by one, Schumatix and Luca Taylor’s image came crumbling down in an instant. Online communities all around the world stood with A-Bio.

—Wow, Schumatix is a huge asshole. Unimaginable. How can a person do that?

—We stand with you, Doctor Ryu. Shred that bastard into particles.

—Current A-Gen scientist here. Doctor Ryu Young-Joon is famous around here for going ballistic when research ethic is broken. I think Luca Taylor is done for.

—But why is Luca Taylor doing that? What does he get from it?

└ He was trying to keep God Young-Joon in check.

└ He did it because his company's sales will plummet when Ryu Young-Joon’s stem cell

technology gets launched. He’s trying to mess with A-Bio’s future.

—I hope Luca Taylor gets eye cancer.

—Schumatix’s shares are plummeting for three days in a row. Is this real?

* * *

Two days after the press conference, police came to Luca Taylor’s home.

“Let’s go.”

They even handcuffed him.

Crack!

As soon as they came out the door, eggs began flying at Luca Taylor.

“Die!” shouted the people who were rallying.

“You shitty asshole! Would you do that if it was your family who had glaucoma?”

“You’re a waste of oxygen! Go die!”

The police pulled away Luca Taylor even more roughly. They were trying to move him to the police car quickly before the angry people caused a scene. Luca Taylor tried to walk fast, but he tripped on something on the ground. It was a pile of garbage. Now that he took a look, he saw a huge amount of garbage in front of his house. The Swiss people had thrown it all over his house. There were curses and swears written on his fence and mailbox.

* * *

Lab Director Kim Hyun-Taek scoffed during his meeting with Lab Director Gil Hyung-Joon.

“CEO Taylor is basically sentenced to death,” Gil Hyung-Joon said.

“Ryu Young-Joon lost it and came at me when he heard I destroyed Cellicure even when he was a Scientist who had nothing,” Kim Hyun-Taek replied.

Gil Hyung-Joon nodded. “He went to Sunyoo hospital’s director and caused a scene because Congressman Shim Sung-Yeol put his mother in the Alzheimer’s clinical trial, and then moved hospitals.”

“You also heard the news, huh. That guy sticks to research ethics like it’s his religion. But someone tried to make a tumor in a patient’s eye on purpose with his product? With Ryu Young-Joon’s personality, he’s going to rip Taylor apart until he’s dead.”

“There’s no reason for Ryu Young-Joon to be at the front fighting and criticizing him. If that insane technology is true, he just has to sit back and watch until it ends. Public opinion is going to kill Luca Taylor,” Gil Hyung-Joon said.

“That’s right. But to be honest, I am a little worried because A-Bio is getting so big.”

“Are you worried about your future position as CTO?”

“Haha, honestly, I am worried about that too. And Ryu Young-Joon already has a lot of control over A-Gen. Nowadays, the Research Support Center and the Clinical Trial Management Center are just subcontractors of A-Bio.”

“It’s going to get worse now.”

“Probably. That idiot Taylor was trying to crush Ryu Young-Joon, but actually gave him wings.”

Kim Hyun-Taek frowned like this was trouble.

“Haha. But Taylor was actually our enemy, wasn’t he? How much did we fight with Schumatix over patents? Let’s enjoy this right now.”

“Yes, I agree. It’s a problem if Ryu Young-Joon bares his teeth to us, but it’s actually quite satisfying to see him rip apart Schumatix. We surpassed a powerful enemy.”

It was already a very bad situation for Schuamtix as the White House supported Young-Joon, but time was still on Young-Joon’s side. The tumor began disappearing in Ardip’s eye, the patient who became Schumatix’s target. He was transferred to the largest university hospital in India and was currently resting. They had decided to consider methods to remove the tumor, like surgery, if the tumor didn’t disappear after a week of observing it.

And on the sixth day, the size of the tumor was observed to be significantly smaller than the day before. On the seventh day, the size was reduced to half. Now, it was clear as tumors never went away on their own; this was the aggregation of stem cells.

[The cell mass in Patient Ardip’s eye is disappearing.]

[Tumor revealed to be the aggregation of stem cells.]

[Ryu Young-Joon was right: The glaucoma treatment kit was safe.]

New news articles were released from all over the world. Schumatix, who seemed to be recovering from their downfall, began plummeting again.

The result of this fight did not just simply reveal Schumatix’s evil acts and destroy them; the support from A-Bio began skyrocketing internationally. He completely convinced people who were doubtful of the first-ever stem cell treatment.

—I want to say that this was a transitional incident in which advances from the old generation to new. Then, what did A-Bio gain from this? They gained an incredible amount of patient’s trust.

Professor Shin Jung-Ju of Yeonyee Hospital said.

—Trust?

The interviewer asked.

—Yes. So, it’s something like this. Because A-Bio’s product was so safe and perfect, a world-renowned competitor like Schumatix tried to make cancer on purpose with that product, but it was impossible. It wasn’t like that you got side effects if you were unlucky, but you couldn’t even if you tried to induce them on purpose. Because the product is so perfect. It’s not just some students, but even Schumatix can’t make the side effects happen.

—Wow. Now that you say it like that, it’s amazing.

—This is science. This is the advancement of technology and medicine. In my opinion, A-Bio is marking a new chapter between old and new medicine, and the gap between it is huge. And Schumatix advertised that fact themselves.

—I see.

—The White House stood with A-Bio. What do you think this means? The United States has already caught on that A-Bio and Doctor Ryu Young-Joon is the path that leads to the future of medicine. The fact that we have a gift like him in our country is the best luck we’ve had since Dangun.[1]

The interviewer laughed.

—It seems like you enjoy explaining Doctor Ryu Young-Joon and A-Bio.

—Honestly, it’s so fun. It’s because this issue was so provocative, but it’s also because the things A-Bio is developing right now will reform the structure of medicine. Personally as a doctor, I found this so entertaining. And I’m very excited.

—Hahaha, I know how you feel. But it’s not just doctors. I feel that way as well.

—Right? Back to the topic. As I told you just now, this incident proved the safety of A-Bio’s product to the world, right? We have to consider the fact that most of the new drug pipelines from A-Bio are probably based on stem cells. Originally, there was probably a lot of worry regarding the safety of those new drugs, but their path was cleared for them.

Shin Jung-Ju explained the situation again.

—I see.

—The countries that had regulations on the glaucoma treatment kit are positively evaluating it and are planning to lift regulations soon. They would have been lifted anyway because clinical trial results were good, but it was fast-forwarded by Schumatix’s sabotage.

—Since the main reason for regulations is safety.

—That’s right. But if it’s so safe that it is impossible to induce cancer artificially, what government in their right minds would regulate it?

1. The Dangun Myth is a story about how Korea was first founded. ?