Chapter 363: More trouble at home
Zhang Xingjiu had just reached an agreement with them the day before, and the next day the American media began to hype up the miraculous effects of penicillin. Zhang Xingjiu estimated that these capitalists could make a fortune just by relying on the reservation fee and transfer of agency rights.
It is much easier to make money in the pharmaceutical industry now than in later generations. The most important thing is that there is no FDA to interfere. Although the Food and Drug Administration was established in the United States in 1906, it was not until 1938 that the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed in view of a series of drug and food safety accidents, giving the FDA greater power.
Today's pharmaceutical and food industry is in a state of chaos. For example, deadly stuff like radium water is still being sold as a miracle drug, and consumers who don't know the truth are rushing to buy it. What about penicillin, a real miracle drug? These capitalists are destined to make a lot of money in the next few years, until the outbreak of World War II. By then, all countries in the world will regard penicillin as an important strategic resource and subject it to national control. The history of a few giant pharmaceutical companies trying to monopolize penicillin will come to an end.
However, this is not entirely a bad thing for these giant pharmaceutical companies. The participation of more companies will also mean that penicillin has more consumers, which is equivalent to helping them open up the market, and they can also use economies of scale to earn more profits.
Compared with the benefits he is about to get, the little benefits that Zhang Xingjiu wants are simply not worth mentioning. At the dock in San Francisco, the equipment and instruments that Zhang Xingjiu needs have begun to be loaded. It is estimated that these equipment and instruments will arrive in advance before he returns to Shanghai.
The agreed quota for international students has also been arranged, and soon a group of students from China will enter American universities for further studies and return to work in their home country after graduation. Some of them will definitely choose to stay in the United States because China is too backward, but as long as someone is willing to go back, this investment will not be a loss.
Zhang Xingjiu also made an agreement with Caltech that as soon as Qian Fukang graduated, he could come here to study directly and learn the most advanced aerodynamics knowledge under Theodore von Karman. In the future, Guo Yonghuai, Lin Jiaqiao and others would follow Qian Fukang's footsteps and come here to study.
The ability to reach such an agreement, in addition to Zhang Xingjiu's reputation and the influence of those capitalists, is also closely related to one person, that is, Robert Andrew Millikan, the current president of California Institute of Technology.
He had often discussed experimental plans for the photoelectric effect with Zhang Xingjiu through correspondence twenty years ago. A few years ago, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics because of Zhang Xingjiu's nomination. The two of them were old friends. What was the big deal about helping Zhang Xingjiu arrange a few students now?
When Zhang Xingjiu went to the California Institute of Technology to give a speech, he also attended the doctoral degree awarding ceremony for a Chinese student, Dr. Zhao Zhongyao, a disciple of Millikan.
After staying in the United States for a few more days and watching Mei Lanfang's performance, Zhang Xingjiu and Tang Feifan boarded the passenger ship again and crossed the Atlantic to arrive in Britain. They were accompanied by representatives from the United States. They needed to go to Europe to discuss the distribution of benefits of penicillin with the European consortium and at the same time fulfill their promise to help Zhang Xingjiu and Tang Feifan operate the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Zhao Zhongyao also took the same ship with them to England, preparing to do research at the Cavendish Laboratory. This time his teacher would be another Nobel Prize winner, Rutherford. While on the ship, he also accepted Zhang Xingjiu's invitation and prepared to work at Aurora University after returning to China.
After landing, Zhang Xingjiu went to Cambridge first. They had cooperated once before on Wu Lien-teh's award. Later, Zhang Xingjiu helped Cambridge get several Nobel Prize nominations and ultimately helped some people win the prize.
Both parties benefited from the cooperation, so the renegotiation of the cooperation would naturally go much more smoothly. Soon, Zhang Xingjiu reached a similar cooperation with Cambridge, transferring part of the profits of penicillin in exchange for their support for the Nobel Prize and the opportunity to accept more Chinese students. These students, like Wu Lien-teh and Zhao Zhongyao, would enter the professional studies that China urgently needed at the moment.
Before leaving Cambridge, Zhang Xingjiu invited Chinese students in Cambridge to a meal, talked to them one by one at the table, and helped them solve various problems in life and study.
Among them, the one Zhang Xingjiu cared about the most was Hua Luogeng. According to the original history, he dropped out of school because he could not afford the tuition and had only a junior high school education. He then returned home to help his family run the grocery store while studying on his own. Eventually, he made a name for himself by publishing mathematical papers in journals and was specially recruited by Xiong Qinglai to serve as a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, and then went to Cambridge for further studies.
Zhang Xingjiu naturally would not let Hua Luogeng waste so much precious time, so he arranged for him to study in the Affiliated Middle School of Aurora University when he was in junior high school. Hua Luogeng did not disappoint his expectations and soon showed outstanding mathematical talent. He skipped grades and was specially recruited into the Department of Mathematics of Aurora University at the age of fifteen. At the age of eighteen, he obtained enough credits to graduate with undergraduate degree and was recommended by Zhang Xingjiu to pursue a doctorate in Cambridge.
His doctoral supervisor was Hardy, a well-known figure in the mathematics world today. Hardy also praised Hua Luogeng highly. In front of Zhang Xingjiu, he compared Hua Luogeng and Ramanujan and believed that Hua Luogeng was fully capable of achieving greater success than Ramanujan.
After staying in the UK for half a month and finalizing the cooperation matters, Zhang Xingjiu came to France again. The negotiations in France were the smoothest. After all, it was the country he had been dealing with for the longest time, he had many acquaintances there, and many things could be discussed directly.
France is the last stop of Zhang Xingjiu's trip to Europe and the United States. He does not plan to visit other countries for the time being. If they want to cooperate, they can come to Paris to talk. Let them compete for interests with representatives of Britain, the United States, France and other countries. Zhang Xingjiu just wants to get what he wants.
It was still winter when he left China, and it was already summer when he finished all his affairs and prepared to return home. Zhang Xingjiu secured benefits such as money, equipment, and study abroad places, and also received a positive reply that he and Tang Feifan would win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the latest the year after next.
This time, his chance of winning the prize was even more certain than his previous ones, because the Caroline School of Medicine, which was responsible for judging the prize, had received a share of the profits from penicillin, and the referees, referees, witnesses, organizers, and co-organizers were all Zhang Xingjiu's people. How could other candidates compete with him? Moreover, penicillin was definitely worthy of a Nobel Prize.
On the boat back, Tang Feifan's face was filled with excitement, as he imagined himself standing on the podium and wondering what kind of speech he would give.
Zhang Xingjiu was having a headache. The distribution of benefits abroad had been resolved, but what should he do at home? This was more troublesome than abroad.
(End of this chapter)
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