Chapter 332 - 165: New Laureate (Medium Cup)

Chapter 332: Chapter 165: New Laureate (Medium Cup)

May 25th.

Jiang Miao received an invitation from the National Science and Technology Progress Award Review Committee, inviting him and Lin Shuya to the Great Hall in the Capital City on the 21st of next month to attend the awards ceremony.

Jiang Miao already knew the outcome. Both his and Shuya’s work had won the National Science and Technology Progress Award, First Class. The public announcement of the awards had been made in mid-April of this year.

However, considering Shuya was pregnant and it was best for her not to travel, he immediately emailed the award review committee. He explained that Lin Shuya was unable to come to the Capital City to receive the award and that he would accept it on her behalf.

The review committee quickly replied, agreeing to let Jiang Miao accept the award on her behalf. However, he would need to prepare the relevant acceptance speech and presentation materials, including those for Lin Shuya’s award-winning "Artificial Cultivation Technique for White Truffles."

After dealing with that matter, Jiang Miao went to the Nanhu Experimental Zone.

Today, however, he didn’t go to the lab to conduct experiments. Instead, he was there to meet with Yu Jiancun, the General Manager of Xinkangle Medicine; He Youwei, the Technical Director; and three PhD researchers from the field of biochemical pharmaceuticals.

Facing the big boss of the parent company, Yu Jiancun sat ramrod straight.

Even the three rather proud PhD researchers felt a bit of pressure and constraint when facing Jiang Miao.

After all, the man before them was a recipient of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, First Class; the founder of a multi-billion agricultural group; the Vice President of the Cyrus Feed Association; and, as of last month, the Vice President of the Cyrus Fisheries Association’s Aquaculture Branch.

His wife, Lin Shuya, had become the Vice President of the Cyrus Mushroom Association in March.

Even if the three PhD researchers felt they had more expertise in the pharmaceutical field than Jiang Miao, they remained deferential out of respect for a top-tier scientist.

"Alright, no need to be so serious. Everyone, please relax," Jiang Miao said as he sat down. He then turned to He Youwei. "Youwei, from now on, you will be the Technical Director of Xinkangle Medicine."

"Of course, Teacher." He Youwei nodded eagerly.

"General Manager Yu, your job is to manage the daily operations and production of Xinkangle Medicine. As for the R&D work, since it has now been spun off, you no longer need to concern yourself with it."

Yu Jiancun had no idea what Jiang Miao was planning, but as a high-level executive, he was keenly aware of his place. His job was simply to follow the boss’s orders. "Understood, General Manager Jiang."

Jiang Miao instructed nonchalantly, "Keep Xinkangle Medicine’s current production lines running. It’s losing a few million a year, but I can afford the loss. However, the training for the production staff must not stop. When the company produces new drugs in the future, these people will be the backbone."

"I will keep the production lines running and enhance our staff’s skill training," Yu Jiancun hurriedly agreed with a nod.

Next, Jiang Miao turned to the three pharmaceutical R&D researchers. "Dr. Huang, Dr. Chen, Dr. Li, from now on you will belong to Hailufeng Company’s R&D Division, under the Third Pharmaceutical R&D Office."

"General Manager Jiang, may I ask what project we’ll be developing?" Dr. Chen asked, still a bit guarded.

"The focus of your Third Pharmaceutical R&D Office will be chemical drugs. I’ve reviewed your profiles. Dr. Chen, at your previous company, you were researching a generic version of Ripretinib, if I recall correctly?"

Hearing Jiang Miao’s question, Dr. Chen gave a wry smile. "I was the deputy technical director for that project. We did successfully create a generic for Ripretinib, but we ran into all sorts of patent issues. Currently, it can only be produced and sold by paying exorbitant licensing fees."

"My previous company had actually planned to invest in R&D for -tinib class drugs, but they abandoned that direction because of patent concerns," Dr. Huang added, pushing up his glasses.

Dr. Li smiled. "It can’t be helped. Foreign pharmaceutical companies have been laying the groundwork in this field for decades, while domestic development of new drugs has only been a priority for the last decade or so. The typical R&D and launch cycle for a new drug is usually 10 to 15 years."

Jiang Miao understood the subtext in Dr. Li’s words. He was being reminded that bringing a new drug from R&D to market often takes over a decade. Not only is this process time-consuming and resource-intensive, but it also creates a major problem: the patent’s effective lifespan.

You have to understand, the patent on the drug’s substance itself—the composition of matter—is usually filed at the very beginning of the R&D process. As soon as researchers synthesize a new compound with potential therapeutic value and can demonstrate its pharmacological activity or potential use through experimental data, they can apply for the substance patent.

This means the patent term begins calculating from the filing date, and in most major regions worldwide, the patent term for a drug is 20 years.

Once the filing date is set, the patent term is fixed at 20 years, regardless of how the subsequent R&D progresses or when the drug is eventually approved for the market.

If a new drug takes 10 years to develop and about 1 year for market approval, that means its effective patent life is only 9 years long.

Although it’s possible to apply for a patent term extension, it can only be extended by 2.5 to 5 years.

This is also why many new drugs are priced so high when they hit the market, especially niche ones. A single treatment can sometimes cost several million US Dollars.

Of course, to circumvent this issue with the patent term, many pharmaceutical companies employ clever strategies, building out patent families to create patent barriers.