Chapter 102

Knowing the paper would appear in the last week of October, Li Lan relaxed. Wanting to graduate quickly, she'd taken the department's mid-term review last year, six months ahead of the usual point, and after some forty minutes had passed it and qualified to graduate. Told about the publication, Auren James was pleased, and said he'd arranged the external examiners and submitted her thesis; the defence would fall within a month or two.

One or two months, because the examiners need time to read the whole thing. A thesis is not a journal paper; a doctoral thesis starts at a hundred-odd pages, and she'd begun hers six months earlier and by the end of the experiments had nearly three hundred. What went to The Lancet was the distilled part of it.

While she was preparing her slides, the last week of October arrived and the issue came out.

Copenhagen. The Nord biopharmaceutical company.

Rosen had always been proud to be one of Nord's people. As a world-leading biopharmaceutical company, Nord had sat at the head of insulin research for years; its insulin sold in over a hundred and seventy countries and held above forty per cent of the global market, and within it the Terapeutisk laboratory was the company's most important asset, gathering the best people from everywhere and responsible for developing new insulins.

Opening his computer to start the day, Rosen saw the notice that the new issue was out, and having coffee left, decided to drink it over whatever was interesting.

As a Terapeutisk researcher, keeping constant track of developments in medicine was part of his job. Never assume research is free of competition; the opposite — competition is savage, and it is you or them. A researcher's worst fear is a rival cracking the thing you're working on first, because it means your effort and your investment have gone down the drain. So in medicine as in every field, researchers watch their peers and try to be a step ahead.

Seeing the Article slot on the front page occupied by a study on diabetes and insulin, he was interested, working on insulin himself, and seeing an author he didn't recognise, guessed some researcher had made a new finding.

He drank his coffee unhurriedly and settled in with it.

Thirteen pages didn't take him long. He'd expected an interim finding, and reading on became alert to what it was worth; doubtful about the conclusion that hydroxy insulin could cure diabetes, and unable to find a counter-argument.

He simply didn't believe it. The long-acting insulin on the market at present was their own degludec, which acts for thirty to forty hours, and Terapeutisk was working to break fifty — and a cure, in his view, was nowhere near what current technique could reach.

Doubting a paper's conclusion is normal; nobody believes a paper true without thinking. Research is largely bold hypothesis, medicine produces an enormous number of papers annually, there is no shortage on diabetes, and there are even papers claiming cancer can be cured; every year brings news of AIDS or one cancer or another being conquered, and most of it remains theoretical and never becomes a real result.

To his mind this was the same. Against a purely theoretical paper, though, this one undeniably offered him a direction: degludec's limit was forty hours, and to break fifty, hydroxy insulin might be an option.

A good return this early, and in a good mood he finished the coffee and started again from the top to study the methods and the data properly.

Others following the journal saw it too, and most reacted as he had — an excellent paper, and a prompt to start thinking about what could be done with hydroxy insulin.

---

Unaware of having given anybody ideas, Li Lan was in Feng Jiang's office with Zhang Lin discussing Cerulean Pharmaceuticals.

A year ago, with the first results in hand, she'd told them the hydroxy insulin might cure diabetes and that she meant to set up a pharmaceutical company. Neither believed her: jumping from cosmetics to pharmaceuticals is far too risky, and Cerulean's size then was nowhere near able to carry new-drug development.

They'd come to England specially to do the arithmetic with her. Preclinical development, a plant, and staff came to an estimated two hundred million, which Cerulean could just about bear — the problem being that once clinical approval came through, the trials would run to seven or eight hundred million. Rejuvenate's growth was substantial and it had entered a stable phase, and would not close a gap that size.

Having listened carefully to her description, though, neither of them was too stupid to see what the hydroxy insulin was worth, and neither could bear to give it up. Succeed and the whole company would move onto an entirely different level; fail and it was liquidation. Even with Li Lan insisting she would succeed, investing in a new drug was still a gamble.

What decided them was what she handed over two months later: a heshouwu hair-growth serum, with the complete research file to go with it.

"Cerulean Pharmaceuticals' plant is finished and the recruitment notices are out. Once hiring is done we can start the preclinical work." Feng Jiang read from his assistant's summary, with some excitement. Six months of building, and Cerulean Pharmaceuticals had taken its first step.

Zhang Lin nodded. "We can move some people across from the company, though everybody's background is cosmetics, so we need pharmaceutical people hired quickly.

"Lanlan's finished the hydroxy insulin, so next is the preclinical work and a new drug application to the FDA. Preclinical takes about two years — and new drugs are always slow. This is only the first step."

"It won't take two. A year at most," Li Lan said. Preclinical work takes long because the synthesis has to be refined repeatedly, and the hydroxy insulin skips that entirely and goes straight to observation; all it needs is recording the data, which saves an enormous amount of revising and repeating.

"Fine, we'll provisionally assume a year, and with the FDA's review, clinical trials within two years at the outside. Feng Jiang, are you all right at your end?"

"With the hair serum and Rejuvenate, in two years we can comfortably carry the billion we estimated."

Which made Li Lan curious. A year ago they'd been worried about the money, and on the growth rate at the time Cerulean would have needed five years or more to produce a billion. Five years was too long; she couldn't wait — and while she had no money, she had products. Cosmetics being about as far as Cerulean could take that line, with the Rejuvenate eye cream well received, she'd gone for a hair serum instead, the market for hair products being, as she remembered, substantial.

Having handed it over she hadn't paid much attention, being at a critical stage, and knew only that it had launched six months ago.

"Two years and we can carry it? So the hair serum has been useful."

Feng Jiang looked at her, and knew she hadn't read anything he'd sent. "Useful? The hair serum's sales are now somewhat above Rejuvenate's. There are plenty of hair products on the market and most of them don't do much; ours is effectively the only one of its kind — and overseas sales are a good deal better than domestic."

The critical money question resolved, Li Lan had nothing to worry about, and with the preclinical stage approaching she was rather excited. "Since the plant's finished — I'll be in the country for the next two months. Is there anything you need?"

Feng Jiang was puzzled. "In the country? It's October. You're not going back to England?"

She looked equally puzzled. "Why would I go back when I'm about to graduate?"

"Graduate?"

The two of them said it together.

"Mm." Li Lan paused. "Didn't I say?"

"Say what?"

"I came back because I'm graduating. There's nothing to do in England."

"You did not," Zhang Lin said definitely. "You arrived and talked about the hydroxy insulin. You never said anything about graduating."

"The experiments are finished, so I can graduate. Didn't you know?"

Zhang Lin nodded, and then, "I knew that. You only went two years ago, so it didn't occur to me — I assumed you'd come specially to tell us the work was done."

"Ah. I see." Li Lan understood what was odd about it; two years is quick. "British doctorates don't involve much teaching. Once the research is done you can apply. Three years is normal, and two isn't impossible if you're quick."

"Normal." Zhang Lin repeated the word. Isn't a doctorate supposed to be difficult? Why did a doctorate in Li Lan's mouth sound about as demanding as eating and drinking? "Your standard of normal may not be the same as mine." She considered herself to have been a good student, and everybody she knew had taken at least three years; in chemistry, four or five is common. She had never heard of two.

"Since you've graduated, the preclinical work is yours." Her first instinct on catching up was to press-gang her.

"Fine."

Li Lan agreed at once; there's nothing especially hard about it, chiefly toxicology and recording data. Only rather dull.

Then, remembering the NCI, she added quickly, "Though I may only be able to do it until January."

Hearing a familiar formula, Zhang Lin narrowed her eyes. "When you graduated I asked you to come to the company and you said you were doing a doctorate. Now you've done the doctorate and you're still putting me off? Lanlan, do you intend to run this company or not?"

Remembering what she'd said two years ago, Li Lan laughed sheepishly and defended herself. "Sister Lin, it isn't that I don't want to. My supervisor recommended me for a position and it would be a shame to miss it."

Zhang Lin knew perfectly well that the company was a waste of Li Lan's abilities, and had said it to tease her, on account of the woman constantly generating more work.

She checked the time. "Feng Jiang and I have a meeting. Do you want to come?"

Li Lan shook her head quickly. "No, no. You go, I'll be off." Cerulean was no longer the small company it had been, and she was still in the habit of dealing only with the two of them, and went to them first with anything.

After she'd gone, Zhang Lin picked up the hydroxy insulin file she'd left. "She really does trust us. Not afraid you and I will walk off with this."

Feng Jiang smiled at his old partner. "Would you?"

"No." She shook her head, smiling.

He looked at the file too. "With one hydroxy insulin there'll be a second and a third. It doesn't matter if you and I go — as long as Li Lan is here, there'll be a second Cerulean and a third."

Thinking about the company's history, Zhang Lin nodded. "Knowledge is power. The old sayings get it right.

"I'm curious how many more surprises she has in her."