episode_0081

Episode 81. Speaking skills rather than medicine (1)

****

After finishing up and discharging all the patients from the ward, I headed to the palace as quickly as possible with the graduate students and Mint.

This is the main gate of the palace. I passed by Mint and the guards and entered the palace.

“So. You’re starting a company?”

“Yes.”

“What, if that was your plan, you should have told me.”

I shook my head. It wasn’t that I didn’t intend to tell Mint. I had been meaning to ask Mint from the beginning…

Than that.

“ I didn’t plan to do that originally. Academia is much dumber than I thought. So I had no other choice.”

“Really?”

“I was trying to take it easy, but the professors at the alchemy department were being rude. I was annoyed, so I came to the palace to see them.”

“How about returning to the palace while we’re at it?”

Where did you get the bottom? I glanced at Mint. Mint smirked.

“I have no students to teach, colleagues to persuade, or patients to treat in the palace. So I have no intention of returning to the palace for the time being.”

“I guess so.”

He didn’t seem to care. Since Mint was in the academy anyway, it seemed like he wasn’t that upset about me being in the academy.

“What’s the plan?”

“Ah. This time, I will persuade the royal family to establish a company and borrow money from the government to make it similar to a public corporation. Have you heard of stocks?”

“Of course I know.”

The first joint stock company was established in 1602. It is not surprising that the concept of a joint stock company exists in this world.

Well, the first joint stock company in history was the Dutch East India Company. They are notorious for many things… … I’m not sure if the joint stock companies in this world were created for such imperialistic exploitation.

I don’t think so.

Anyway, in this era, most of the companies that could be called proper stock companies were state-guaranteed public enterprises or royally chartered companies. Companies established by royal command or law.

That’s what I was trying to make.

“Isn’t there anything for the teacher to worry about? If the government won’t pay, Nana Manfred can contribute. Of course, the amount will be different.”

“That may be true.”

“Be thankful for the grace.”

“Oh. Thank you… … .”

Mint nodded triumphantly.

****

The Imperial Central Conference Room.

It was a larger conference room than any I’ve been to before. There were a lot more people there than when I gave my presentation on cholera last time.

Contrary to the original plan, they told me not to bring the graduate students in. They seemed to be secretly relieved that they had avoided an uncomfortable position.

Is it because of money?

The Emperor was not present, but there were many high-ranking people. Mint and Manfred were sitting at the head table, and there were quite a few other people gathered. About ten people.

The Governor of the Imperial Central Bank. Violet, who probably came as an expert, and a few others whose faces I don’t recognize.

Violet is here again.

He is truly an amazing human being.

Even though she doesn’t do any work, Violet’s superiors all seem to think she’s a genius expert, especially the prince.

When I saw the royal doctor, he asked me to give him money and ask for it.

When I presented my research at the academy, I convinced Manfred that I had developed or learned new theories together with him while hanging out at the academy under the pretext of training.

He had heard of penicillin early on and went there to embezzle research funds, and now he is sitting among the bureaucrats as if he has discovered some kind of pioneer.

Seriously. I looked at Violet in disbelief. Violet winked at me, probably thinking I was pretending to know her.

Yeah, it helped, so bear with it.

“Hello everyone. Today is-”

I started to speak, but the prince raised his hand. What is he trying to say next… … . I had no choice but to stop talking.

“Meet the Prince.”

“Mr. Asterix. Just the conclusion.”

Oh, that weird-ass bastard.

“Ah… … . Please give me some money to sell medicine.”

The prince nodded his head as if satisfied.

No, what kind of a fist-fighting meeting is this? My fellow citizens of the Empire, this is how your taxes are being spent. Most of the high-ranking nobles and bureaucrats are just plain old idiots who don’t want to listen to a 20-minute presentation and want a 3-second summary… … .

Mint laughed in vain. I looked around the conference room. There’s no way these people would get away with such nonsense. Right?

Adelbert Apler, President of the Imperial Central Bank.

I thought he was my grandfather. Surprisingly, he was a young man with impressive, straight black hair… … No. He was a middle-aged man.

“Let’s talk about money together.”

“Yes.”

“Just tell me one thing. What you want and what you can give in return.”

There are two of them, sir.

“I would like to see a system that could distribute penicillin to everyone who needs it.”

“What can you do?”

“Well… …. If the royal charter company is established this time, I will give the government a majority stake.”

“How much investment do you need to make and how quickly can you recover it? Let’s estimate the amount you need.”

“Uh… …. Isn’t the goal not to make a profit? The government invests money to create and research necessary medicines.”

“Shouldn’t the company’s doors be open?”

I thought about it for a while.

“Well, if we really want to be specific, it seems that the profitability of penicillin can be adjusted as desired through the price of the drug.”

“Is it worth calling?”

“That’s what I think. Now the government should weigh the management status of the licensed company and the right to health and set the price accordingly.”

“Let’s get specific.”

I thought about it for a while.

“Penicillin can be used to prevent gangrene during childbirth, surgery, and deep wounds. The number of babies born each year is 3 million.”

“Prevention?”

“Yes, it can be used retrospectively.”

“That’s good. If it’s for prevention, doesn’t that mean that demand can be determined?”

“Hmm.”

I frowned briefly.

There’s nothing we can do about it. That means there’s no disagreement about the effectiveness of the drug.

“Yes. Potential puerperal fever patients, wound patients, gangrene patients, surgical patients. If we estimate statistically, it would be around 10 million people combined. That’s a conservative estimate.”

“I guess so.”

“Ten million pills. That’s about 30,000 pills a day. You can extract up to 30 pills from 1 liter of culture solution, so you need 1,000 liters a day.”

“Less than you thought?”

“If it takes four weeks to grow blue mold, seven 4,000-liter incubators would be enough. Or ten 3,000-liter incubators. This is also conservative.”

“Let’s say there are 10 incubators. How much does it cost to operate them?”

“We don’t know yet. We were thinking generously, 1 million gold per unit for initial facility costs. Ten together would be 10 million gold.”

“If you sell them for 1 gold each, you can recover the initial cost of the facility in about a year? Even if you think about the operating costs later.”

“That’s true. But please don’t think of medicine only as a means of making money, and I hope you will also look at it from a social utility perspective.”

“I don’t comment on topics I don’t know much about. I’m not talking about making money, I’m talking about my area of expertise.”

Okay, I understand.

“To sum it up. Since they are monopolizing the production of a drug that has no substitutes, does that mean they can produce the financial statements the government is targeting by simply adjusting the price?”

I thought we were going to discuss things like whether we could actually make the drug, how effective it would be, etc. But you’re not interested in that.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I have no more questions.”

The president put down the paper he was looking at. I let out a small sigh. There were some unexpected variables here.

On the other hand, there were also some problems that became easier. The prince, sitting at the head of the conference room, scribbled something on a piece of paper and then turned his head towards Violet.

“Mr. Violet.”

“Oh, yep.”

Violet sat up straight in her pod after a nap.

“Mr. Violet, you have personally studied this basic technology and attended related academic conferences, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is it feasible?”

“I have discussed this with Professor Asterix through several letters. Penicillin has been purified, and that is why the professor came.”

“Thank goodness.”

I have never exchanged such letters. I would occasionally receive letters from Violet, and I wondered if this was a build-up to this… … The prince hesitated, then looked in my direction and opened his mouth.

“You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Even if you start a company with a royal license like the teacher said, it’s dangerous to rely on just one drug.”

“Yes.”

“Then, Mr. Asterix. If it doesn’t work out this time, tell me what you’re going to do about it. ”

“There is one more medicine. It is an anti-inflammatory analgesic that can be extracted from the willow tree.”

“Oh.”

But it didn’t seem to be the answer I was looking for.

“As I said before. Instead of making complicated medicine, why don’t you just open a hospital? You can make money with your name.”

“Ah.”

“To you. So, there was a line of high-ranking nobles who wanted to be treated by the healer who cured the princess. I explained to them several times that they were not listening to me, but they didn’t understand. ”

“Medical science is not an auction item. The poor are relatively sicker, and treating them is more important. There is a high risk of going in the opposite direction of what is needed.”

“Look. You’re not listening to a word.”

“Ah.”

“Anyway, I’ll do whatever Mr. Asterix wants, so if things don’t work out in a few years, just sort things out and open a hospital. Fill it out there.”