Chapter 1127 Benefiting All Humanity (First Update, Please Subscribe)
Through what channels did the emperor learn about external information?
There are certainly various speculations from the outside world, and the most well-known one is the memorials submitted by officials. This is something that has been around for thousands of years.
However, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty also had a "Daily Intelligence Briefing" which was a tailor-made intelligence report for the emperor. The report contained intelligence content on foreign policy and domestic security affairs. The length of the briefing was generally controlled within 10-12 pages. It can be said that the emperor's daily work began with this briefing.
But more often than not, the emperor learned about external information through newspapers, and not just one newspaper, but five or six newspapers. In addition to three of them being fixed, Emperor Zhu Da would instruct his attendants to buy tabloids randomly from the streets every day.
Don't underestimate tabloids. Even third-rate tabloids like to report erotic news the most, but they also contain a lot of information. In fact, even Emperor Zhu liked to read those erotic news, such as the story between a senior official and an opera singer, or the exposure of the affair between a rich man and a celebrity.
Because the Ming Empire did not recognize polygamy, but men knew it, and wealthy men naturally learned from their European and American counterparts, so lovers took root in the Ming Dynasty, a country with a tradition of polygamy.
Even the ladies did not object. Why? Because the law ensured that illegitimate children had no inheritance rights, and the ladies did not need to worry that the children born to their lovers would compete with their children for inheritance rights.
The emergence of lovers and the traditional practice of polygamy made the second- and third-rate tabloids of the Ming Dynasty filled with all kinds of gossip.
Officials and actors, wealthy people and celebrities, scholars and socialites, in short, there are always spectators. Even Emperor Zhu can be a spectator occasionally.
Of course, there are gossips every day, but not many of them can attract attention.
"this……"
As usual, Emperor Zhu looked uninterested as he read the news in the newspaper, which he didn't know whether it was true or not, but was quite shocking.
Suddenly, an advertisement caught his attention. The advertisement was for a drug that could expel roundworms. Although the picture was a bit straightforward, it was simple and clear, and ordinary people could understand it at a glance.
But what caught his attention was not the picture of a long roundworm being clamped out with pliers, but the name of the medicine.
"Pagoda candy!"
Zhu Da Huangdi is very familiar with pagoda candy. He ate it when he was a child. When he had stomachache, doctors gave children pagoda candy, and the roundworms came out. Some children even used small wooden sticks to pick out the roundworms for fun... showing off how big the roundworms in their stomachs were.
Although it seems nostalgic, roundworms have a great impact on the healthy growth of children. They will rob children of their nutrients, causing malnutrition, developmental delays and other diseases.
"Someone actually made pagoda candy? I don't know if it's true or not. If it can really drive away roundworms, it will really strengthen a generation of people."
It is not clear whether this is the real Emperor Zhu or the fake one, but one thing is certain: if this medicine is effective, it will definitely be beneficial to the country.
Putting down the newspaper, Emperor Zhu directly called the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. In addition to requesting the safety test report of the pagoda candy, he also instructed the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a drug test on the "pagoda candy". As it involved the children of the empire, it had to be treated with caution. The Food and Drug Administration was responsible for the inspection of food and drugs imported and exported by the empire, but its power was limited, and it mainly used the disclosure of product label information as a breakthrough to establish a unified supervision system.
However, this kind of supervision is limited. Although the drug regulator has the right to inspect factories, new drugs do not need to be approved. Pharmaceutical companies only need to prove their safety - that is, they will not kill people.
Even so, the Ming Empire's drug regulation was at least half a century ahead of other countries in the world.
Only a few days later, Emperor Zhu received the test report.
"Mountain Artemisia?"
Looking through the raw materials of the drug preparations, Emperor Zhu was surprised.
"Yes, Your Majesty. According to the introduction of the pharmacy manager Xu Shili, this is a kind of herb he discovered during his time in the Western Regions. Because it has the effect of expelling roundworms, he extracted the Sandannium crystals from it and used it as the raw material to make this medicine. It is very effective and has very low toxicity. We think it can be promoted in China."
As the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Sun Siwei, who had studied business in the UK, was the first among the empire's first batch of overseas students to become a minister. This was directly related to his participation in the formulation of the First and Second Five-Year Plans.
The success of the "Five-Year Plan" brought him into the emperor's sight. When the new cabinet was appointed, he was promoted to Minister of Agriculture and Commerce from Minister of Commerce.
The reason why he proposed to promote this new drug was that, firstly, there were indeed many children suffering from ascariasis, and secondly, there had been a lack of treatment options, and some people even used arsenic-based drugs to treat ascariasis.
"We still have to wait for official promotion. We have to be cautious about drugs. After all, drugs are toxic. It's not too late to promote them after long-term use to confirm that they are harmless to the human body. Officials should be more conservative when it comes to health issues, especially children's health."
After shaking his head to reject Sun Siwei's suggestion, he flipped through the test report in his hand. While muttering "mountain artemisia" in his mind, although he didn't know what this artemisia was, another kind of artemisia emerged in Emperor Zhu's mind - Artemisia annua.
How about extracting artemisinin?
Quinine is indispensable in Africa and Southeast Asia, but... on second thought, Emperor Zhu felt that there was no need for it for the time being. After all, as the origin of the cinchona tree, cinchona plantations had been established in the Chenggong Islands and Shanxi more than ten years ago, and large-scale production of quinine had been achieved long ago. If artemisinin was extracted now, it would definitely have an impact on the cinchona industry.
Moreover, quinine is still a very effective antimalarial drug. In the absence of further market demand, launching artemisinin is not necessarily a good thing. It will only enhance the drug resistance of malarial parasites.
Under such circumstances, introducing artemisinin is likely to be more costly than beneficial.
However, the unexpected discovery of Artemisia serrata by private enterprises made Emperor Zhu feel very relieved. Because after 20 years of development, the current celebrities have initially acquired scientific awareness.
If it were traditional Chinese medicine, they would include this herb in the prescription and add an anti-worm prescription. But now, private enterprises in Ming Dynasty have already realized that the active ingredients should be extracted from Artemisia selengensis for treatment, not just using herbs.
This is a change from experience to science. Such a change is undoubtedly gratifying, and it also allows Emperor Zhu to see the difference between the current Ming Dynasty and the past.
What kind of fruit will modern scientific awareness, coupled with this spirit of independent innovation, produce here?
Although it is still unknown, what is certain is that it will fundamentally change China.
"Maybe, we can try..."
Emperor Zhu spoke only when he had something in mind.
"Sun Qing, the empire is now more and more connected with the outside world, and the empire's overseas colonies are so vast. There must be many valuable herbs in such a vast land. At present, medicine is one of the empire's most important export commodities. We can strengthen research in this area, increase the types of medicines and the scope of treatment, and increase exports."
The empire's pharmaceutical industry was very developed. Although the foundation was laid by Emperor Zhu the Great with special products, its final growth and development relied on modern drugs including aspirin. Compared with the metaphysical drug research in Europe and the United States, Ming Dynasty's pharmaceutical companies made a lot of money by relying on various Chinese herbal extracts extracted from ancient prescriptions.
After all, those drugs do have some effect! Although the effect is not that obvious, it is certain that they are better than the various fake drugs currently popular in Europe and the United States.
Chinese medicine, as the traditional medicine of China, after combining with modern technology, not only benefits the Chinese people themselves, but also benefits all mankind!
Of course, it also brought extremely rich returns to the empire - last year alone, more than 200 million yuan worth of medicines were exported.
And in terms of profit, no product can compare with medicine.
"Your Majesty is right. The cost of medicine is low, the profit is high, and no one can live without it. Our medicine currently occupies almost half of the market in Europe and the United States because of its good efficacy and high safety."
Good efficacy and high safety. The effects of the chemical drugs prepared by pharmacists in Europe these days are definitely not comparable to the drugs of the Ming Dynasty, which are the crystallization of thousands of years of wisdom and experience!
"Efficacy and safety are our trump cards! Therefore, even if we develop new drugs, we cannot rush into the market. We must pay attention to the safety of the drugs and never destroy our own reputation."
What is the biggest fear in the pharmaceutical business? It is destroying one's own reputation. It doesn't matter if the efficacy is poor, but the medicine can kill people. If someone dies from the medicine, then it will destroy one's own reputation.
After thinking about it, Emperor Zhu said.
"In the future, drug trials can be conducted more thoroughly. Not only basic safety tests need to be conducted, but also comparative efficacy experiments can be conducted. Well, in short, we can do it bit by bit."
Emperor Zhu was a layman in how to conduct drug experiments. At most, he knew something like double-blind trials.
But it doesn't matter. After all, the empire now not only has time to explore bit by bit, but also has vast colonies to use. After all, the colonies also need medicines. Well, we can learn from another world, the traditional "virtues" of the pharmaceutical industry in developed countries in Europe and America, and send medicines to Africa...
(End of this chapter)
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