Professor Anthony Stephen is 55 years old and a white old man.
Although he looks ordinary, he is the top infectious disease expert in the United States
His titles include professor of Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard Institute of Epidemiology, and academician of the National Academy of Sciences. Vice president of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) and other titles.
A top expert like him will naturally be sought after by pharmaceutical companies, and he also needs to transform his research results into clinical drugs and experience.
So in the past few years, one of the most important research topics led by Professor Anthony is the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis with the triple drug "anazolid + streptomycin + ganglumin".
Tuberculosis is the number one infectious disease that harms mankind, killing millions of people around the world every year.
Almost all capable countries are researching tuberculosis, and everyone is like a race against time to see who can be the first to conquer tuberculosis.
As you can imagine, the first individual doctor to conquer tuberculosis will receive an unparalleled honor and go down in the history of medicine.
The first pharmaceutical company to produce tuberculosis drugs will also gain a huge market worth tens of billions of dollars a year.
At the same time, the first hospital, organization, research institute, and even country to announce the victory over tuberculosis will also gain huge international reputation.
High risks and high profits. Although tuberculosis is a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of mankind, it is also an attractive apple hanging on the tree. It depends on who can pick it first.
Obviously, as the most famous infectious disease expert in the United States, Professor Anthony really wants to pick this fruit.
For this reason, with the sponsorship of AbbVie Pharmaceuticals, he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a triple therapy for tuberculosis in Asan Country for five years, using anezolid and gangumin respectively. Two new anti-tuberculosis drugs.
Today was the first secret summary meeting of the research team, but the result made him very desperate.
Professor Anthony let go of his hair, took the report data from his assistant, and asked unwillingly:
"How come the cure rate is only 32%? Is it the difference caused by racial issues?"
Assistant Black shrugged:
"Sorry, Professor, whether it is in our country Human experiment, or Asanguo's human experiment, data There is not much difference. The difference is that the United States has only conducted 1,000 drug trials, while Asan has conducted 9,000 trials. "
For a drug to be marketed, it must evaluate the new drug or treatment in the human body in advance. safety and effectiveness. Based on the purpose and scope of the trial, phase IV drug clinical trials are required.
For example, phase I clinical trials first administer the drug to a small number of subjects, usually only 10-30 people, in order to initially evaluate the safety and tolerability of the drug.
These first batch of swab recipients are the most dangerous because it is the first time that the new drug has been applied to humans. Humans are completely different from laboratory mice. The uncontrollable risks are very high, and the mortality and disability rates are very high.
So the recipient can receive a large amount of money in advance, and generally people who are not at the end of their rope will not participate in such a fatal experiment.
Of course, according to the urine of pharmaceutical companies in European and American countries, it is okay if you don’t want to pay. Then you can find homeless people on the roadside, orphans and elderly people in welfare homes, illegal immigrants, etc.
What is more cruel, what if healthy adults are required to conduct the experiment?
Then go to war-torn areas, or countries in South America and Eastern Europe to capture a group of healthy young people, prepare a hospital ship on the high seas to conduct experiments, and throw the dead into the sea to feed the sharks.
If the subjects do not die, no matter what the results of the experiment are, these people will also be killed and silenced. Then, after the human organs are removed, the corpses will continue to be fed to sharks.
Of course you will never see this in the media. People still have to maintain their own hypocrisy and talk about Renquan’s good image.
If the Phase I clinical trial passes, then Phase II will be carried out. At this time, the number of swab recipients will need to be expanded, generally around 100 to 300 people.
The purpose is to initially evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the drug. This stage also provides the basis for the design and dosage regimen of subsequent phase III clinical trials.
The first two phases have been passed, and the next step is the phase III clinical trial.
In this stage, the new drug or treatment is used in a larger group of people, such as 1,000-10,000 people, to further evaluate its effectiveness and safety.
This stage is an important basis for drug registration application, so phase III clinical trials are very important. Most new drugs fall into this stage.
For example, the reason why Chinese patent medicines have not been able to enter the U.S. market is because none of them can pass FDA review, and the vast majority of Chinese patent medicines dare not undergo clinical trials.
The only warrior is "Compound Danshen Dropping Pills", which passed Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, but ultimately failed to pass Phase III and fell halfway. All previous investments were in vain.
There is also a certain indescribable vaccine during the mask disease period. At that time, all vaccines from pharmaceutical companies in the world failed to pass phase III clinical trials.
For example, Pfizer of the United States set up a vaccine branch and launched it directly on the market without conducting phase III clinical trials. Then after making enough money, it was afraid of being held accountable, so it directly canceled the branch. The method was extremely despicable.
Because there are many subjects in phase III clinical trials, theoretically, a large amount of money needs to be paid to the first subject, so the investment is huge.
But you need five thousand or ten thousand living people to conduct experiments. It is obviously impossible for you to catch homeless people or prisoners of war, because the risk of exposure is too great. Once exposed, It's beyond redemption.
So various pharmaceutical companies or experimental teams will think of another way, which is to go to the third world to find subjects.
For example, Asan Kingdom, Africa and other countries, human lives here are not valuable anyway.
Pharmaceutical companies that are more particular will also pay. For example, in the United States, a subject must pay US$100,000, but in poor countries, only US$1,000 may be enough, which saves a lot of money.
Of course, there are also unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies, or those in poor countries who have embezzled the money, then they will use deception or even coercion to make the people unknowingly become guinea pigs.
For example, the black gold rice incident that was exposed in Asan Kingdom was that genetically modified companies provided experimental grains and then asked primary school students to serve as guinea pigs.
Is this kind of thing common? In fact, there are many. It is impossible to enter the campus without a traitor. Some people in Asan Kingdom are extremely evil-minded.
The other thing is that in hospitals in these third world countries, doctors will tell patients that there is no cure for your disease. I have a special medicine in my hand now. Do you want to try it?
The patient is of course willing to give it a try as if he is grasping at straws.
Okay, you have to give it a try. One course of treatment costs tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, but if you don’t die after taking N courses of treatment, you can take the medicine for free in the future.
But when you are taking medicine, you must regularly review this indicator, do that examination, and then give all the results to the doctor in exchange for subsequent medicines.
We won’t tell you everything, but patients should be careful when encountering this kind of thing, because you may have been sold and become a guinea pig, but you are still counting money for others.
The triple therapy experimental team for tuberculosis at Harvard Medical School also conducted a phase III clinical trial in Asan Country, conducting drug trials on 9,000 tuberculosis patients in Asan Country.
Unfortunately, the results were not ideal. The 32% cure rate already represented the failure of the "anazolid + streptomycin + gangumin triple therapy".
Although the experimental data can be falsified, the 14% serious adverse reactions and the 4.4% mortality rate cannot be ignored in any case.
Asan’s life is worthless, he will die if he dies.
But the lives of ordinary people in European and American countries are very precious. After all, lawyers here are more difficult to deal with. If the lawsuit is lost, the compensation will be astonishing amounts of tens of millions.
(In 2004, the Los Angeles court in the United States sentenced the American company Philip Morris, which owns the famous cigarette brand "Marlboro", to compensate a smoker US$28 billion for fraud and liability accidents. The reason is that this An old lady got lung cancer from smoking)
Just when everyone in the institute was reviewing why the experiment failed, a middle-aged white man who was tired of work walked in from the door.
“Hey guys, I’m not late, am I?”
The visitor is Theodore, a partner in Anthony’s tuberculosis research group and a professor at Harvard Medical School. Professor Anthony took a look and complained as if he had found someone to talk to:
"Theodore, there is actually no need for you to come back in time to tell you bad news. Our project failed, Farke, It’s time to start again, how many more years do we have?”
Professor Theodore had just returned from a meeting of the World Organization in Geneva and came to the institute as soon as he got off the plane.
"Anthony, are you still unwilling to accept the reality? I have long known that our experiment in Asan Kingdom failed. When I was presiding over the project at Calicut Hospital in Asan State, I personally rescued no less than 100 drug testers, and I also dissected 50 corpses.
Such a high rate of adverse reactions and deaths. The rate means that our experiment is over. I am mentally prepared, but so what? In addition to paying the fees of Asan Kingdom, we still have a total of 30 million US dollars in funds this time, which is enough for us to make a fortune. ”
It is an international unspoken rule that generally a sponsor will give a “sponsorship” to a certain medical research team to study a certain topic.
After the scientific research team completes the project, the remaining funds can be put into their own pockets. How much money is left depends on whether your experiment goes well and whether you save scientific research funds.
AbbVie Pharmaceuticals has sponsored $100 million in funding from Harvard Medical School to study the effectiveness and safety of two new drugs, anezolid and gangumin, in the treatment of tuberculosis.
Now that the project has failed, 30 million US dollars has entered the pockets of the scientific research team members headed by Professor Anthony and Professor Osido through various false accounting methods.
This is the same as Director Peter Chan's false accounting, a straw hat costing US$6,000, to deceive investors.
So for Osido, the best thing is to succeed in the project and gain both fame and fortune.
If the project fails, it doesn't matter much. If the 30 million US dollars is allocated to a team, he, the person in charge, can get at least 10 million. A "profit" alone is not bad. What else do you need a bicycle?
Professor Anthony was obviously not satisfied with this answer:
“Everyone likes money, but we are experts in infectious diseases. I am very eager that we can become the first team in the world to conquer tuberculosis, so that we can not only enjoy a good reputation All over the world, there will be more funding for scientific research in the future. This is success in life. ”
Professor Theodore sat down, placed a briefcase on the table and patted it twice:
"Anthony, I want to tell you another very unfortunate news. Do you want to The first dream of conquering tuberculosis has been shattered.”
Professor Anthony sat up straight:
"How do you say? Someone has already conquered tuberculosis? Damn it, which team is it? Is it Cambridge Medical School? Or Sorbonne University Medical School? Or Silver's team at Columbia University? I know they have never given up on catching up with us. "
Professor Theodore shrugged:
"You guessed everything wrong. It was done by a medical team that you can't guess no matter how hard you guess, and Their national news agency has publicly announced that they are the first in the world to conquer tuberculosis."
Professor Anthony was stunned after hearing this, and shouted a little unwillingly
"How is it possible, such a sensation. How come I haven't seen the big news about sex? No news has been released at all. I am the vice president of the International Federation against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. There is no reason why I don't know.
Theodore, which country, which medical school, or which pharmaceutical company? Could it be fake news? Many people often lie and conceal reports in order to defraud scientific research funds. This is definitely an academic scandal. "
Professor Theodore smiled, opened his briefcase, and took out a few documents from it.
"I have a few papers here. Take a look at them first, use your smart heads, Evaluate with sharp eyes, are these papers true or false? Finally, I announced which country had conquered tuberculosis. ”
Professor Anthony took one of the materials, and then other team members in the office also picked up the materials and started reading them.
Because this was a "closed book exam", Professor Anthony read it very carefully. Seriously, the title of his paper is "Pharmacological effects and medication regimens of tuberculosis drugs"
"Fake, a new tuberculosis drug has come out. I don't even know it, etopyramide tablets? What the hell is that name?"
Professor Theodore knocked on the table: "Keep reading. Read on quickly. ”
“Strongly binds to the DNA-dependent RNA polyzyme β-oxygen unit to inhibit bacteria. The synthesis of RNA prevents the transcription process of RNA..."
"Inhibits the synthesis of mycolic acid in sensitive bacteria and causes cell wall rupture..."
"Penetrate into phagocytes and enter tuberculosis In mycobacteria, it is deamidated and converted into pyrazinoic acid..."
The more Professor Anthony read the paper, the more questions he had in his mind:
“No, how can one pill have so many pharmacological effects? Either this paper is fake, or this drug is not a single prescription drug. It’s a compound medicine composed of multiple drugs.”
At this time, Assistant Black also exclaimed:
"Oh my god, this paper says that this medical research team has completed the treatment of 5,000 patients. The current cure rate has reached 92%, the recovery rate has reached 6%, and the mortality rate is only 2%. How is this done?"
Professor Anthony was startled, put down the paper in his hand, and grabbed the information in Black's hand.
After a long time, the old professor began to spit out the fragrance again:
"Fake, don't talk about the amazing cure rate, just talk about the mortality rate. There are only two cases of death due to adverse drug reactions. Almost all the other causes of death were due to underlying diseases, and there was even one case of an accidental drowning while fishing."
Another female assistant, Carol, could not stand still at this time. Calmed down:
"Professor, read this paper quickly. It seems that this medical team has done very in-depth research on tuberculosis. They even proposed to divide tuberculosis into 5 types according to the location of the disease and the condition. .
They are primary tuberculosis, secondary tuberculosis, cavitary tuberculosis, miliary tuberculosis, and tuberculous pleurisy.
They also provide a detailed theoretical explanation for why they are classified as such. If this paper is true, then their clinical and theoretical research is definitely at the forefront of the world, and we will have nothing to eat in the future. "
Another assistant also exclaimed:
"My paper is "Clinical Research on Refractory Pulmonary Tuberculosis". We can't even conquer basic tuberculosis. They are already working on it. Studying refractory, stubborn, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis? "
Professor Anthony was reading one paper after another when suddenly he stood behind his chair and threw the materials in his hand into the air.
"I don't believe it, I absolutely don't believe it. If any medical team really goes this far, how could I not know about it? ”
Suddenly, Professor Anthony jumped up like a furious lion, grabbed Professor Theodore's neck, shook him fiercely, and asked fiercely:
"Who is it? Tell me which medical team it is? Tell me. This is not true! ! ”
“Let go, you madman”, Professor Theodore quickly pushed Professor Anthony aside, then straightened his collar, and then took it out of the briefcase. A newspaper.
Everyone in the office gathered around and looked at the newspaper strangely.
"What kind of newspaper is this? Does it look like Japanese?"
"Idiot, this is Chinese."
"What does the Chinese newspaper have to do with tuberculosis papers? Don't tell me that the Chinese were the first to conquer tuberculosis?"
Professor Theodore Snapped his fingers:
“Gentlemen and ladies, you guessed it right, the content published in this newspaper is about China. Good news about conquering tuberculosis, you see, the headline on this front page is about good news.
Did you see the photo on the front page? The doctors in the photo are the scientific research team that conquered tuberculosis this time. The unit is 'Beiping Infectious Disease Hospital', and the person in charge is the young man in the photo, named Lin
Also, the second page of the newspaper is full of interviews with Lin. It details how Lin led his team to invent the drug and how he worked out an effective treatment plan.
And if you look at the third and fourth pages, there are 5 papers published here, which are the materials I just distributed to you. However, this newspaper is all in Chinese, and I still have a complete English copy in my hand. Translation manuscript. "
Anthony's mouth opened wide. He really didn't know how to describe his mood, but asked:
"Theodore, let's not talk about this newspaper and these papers. Authenticity, where did you get this information? "(End of this chapter)