As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 24: Epic Discovery: How to Reduce Addiction
The investors in the audience gathered in groups of three or four to chat. Some of them had verbal confrontations like Young and Wang Hongbo, while others chatted like friends about things unrelated to work.

Lei Jun walked to the front of the stage wearing a blue shirt that he had worn countless times in public:

"Welcome everyone to the sharing session of Sino-Bio. As one of the shareholders of Sino-Bio, I am here to warm up the atmosphere for Zheng Li."

“It’s called a sharing session, and we do have things to share with you, but there’s another layer, which is that we want to bring in a second round of investment.”

"Originally, when I was chatting with Zheng Li privately, I said that I would invest all the money in the second round for you. Just tell me how much you want and I will cover it all."

"Then Zheng Li showed me a document, which is the document I will share with you today. After reading it, I was silent because it was too expensive and I couldn't afford it."

After Lei Jun finished speaking, the investors in the audience looked at each other. Even Lei Jun couldn't afford it, so how high would the valuation of the second round of investment have to be?

"And from another perspective, a company with more investors is more conducive to its growth."

"After all, the industry I have been engaged in is mainly the Internet industry, so the only thing I can provide in the biopharmaceutical industry is funding."

"A successful company cannot grow with funding alone. We need more investors to support its growth."

"We have sent invitations to everyone. Since you are willing to attend the Kechuang Biotechnology sharing session, I will assume that you have the intention to invest."

"Many of the people in the audience were familiar faces, such as IDG, Qiming Venture Partners and Morningside Venture Capital. These investment institutions all participated in the A round of investment in DaMi. At that time, I ran around to meet with investors, and the A round of investment only raised US$4100 million."

"When Zheng Li found me, he said he was my fan and wanted to talk to me. I thought it was a bit proud to have a fan who published a Nature paper at the age of 18, and we were senior and junior students."

"I just chatted with him, and something went wrong. He took 50 million from me in a half-hour phone call, but the unit was RMB."

"I even wanted to give him more money."

"For example, Liu Qin of Morningside Venture Capital and I are old acquaintances. Morningside Venture Capital previously only invested in Internet companies. Not long ago, Liu Qin asked me when would your second round of investment in Sinovation Biotech start?"

"Can we vote too?"

"Plus, too many investors have approached me recently about this matter, and they all said they were short of money? You are definitely short of money for Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. Clinical trials in Europe and the United States are even more expensive. Do you need us to invest some money in you?"

"This is really a happy trouble. Investors are rushing to send money, which reminds me of the days when Damiara invested. I still feel a little sad. Seniors are not as good as juniors."

“Let’s get back to the point. After today’s sharing session, everyone will definitely be more willing to invest in Kechuang Biotech.”

"Now let us welcome Zheng Li, Chairman of Sinovation Biotech, to share with you the latest developments of the company."

At 3:35 pm, Zheng Li waited for five minutes before walking onto the stage:

"Mr. Lei's speech was very good. I saw that everyone in the audience was listening with great interest. My speech might be much more boring."

Having stayed in Blue Star for almost a year, Zheng Li was able to use idioms with ease.

"I believe everyone has a general understanding of endorphins. Today I will mainly introduce some things that you don't know."

"First, the cost of industrial synthesis of endorphins is at most 20 percent higher than that of morphine, but its analgesic effect is ten times that of morphine."

"But endorphins are far more addictive than morphine or any other opioid painkiller."

If we only look at the analgesic effect, fentanyl's analgesic effect is 50-100 times that of morphine. And the cost of synthesizing fentanyl is almost the same as that of morphine. But this thing is too addictive, no less than heroin.

"In short, moderate use of endorphins will not cause addiction, which is good news for all cancer patients."

"In addition, I recently made a major discovery that endorphins and lipotropin trypsin peptides injected at a certain dosage ratio can effectively reduce patients' dependence on opioids after one course of treatment."

"Including opioids such as heroin."

As soon as he finished speaking, the investors in the audience were excited. This was an epic discovery. If it was true, Zheng Li would be more than qualified to win the Nobel Prize for it.

You should know that countless scientists from academia and industry have made attempts to reduce addiction over the years.

Whether at the drug level or the cognitive behavioral level, scientists have tried countless methods but have not found a good solution.

More importantly, this means there is hope for curing or alleviating drug addiction. This market is extremely vast and is equivalent to a monopoly market.

Zheng Li saw that almost everyone in the audience raised their hands, and their faces were full of questions. He gestured, "The staff, please pass the microphone to the lady at the front of the audience."

The lady in the front is Stephanie from Goldman Sachs, and she goes straight to the point:

"Hello, Mr. Zheng. I'm sorry that my question may have offended you a little. I apologize in advance."

"But I believe these questions are also the questions of all our investors present here."

"To what extent can endorphins, when combined with another medication, be effective in reducing a patient's addiction to opioids?"

Zheng Li replied: "We have achieved a radical cure in mice. As long as they are no longer exposed to opioids, they will not become dependent on opioids."

Stephanie looked incredulous: "Are you telling the truth?"

Zheng Li said solemnly: "It's absolutely true!"

Stephanie: "I'm sorry this news is so shocking. I thank you on behalf of countless addicts."

"But I still want to ask, Sinovation Biotech is about to conduct a second round of venture capital, and now you are telling us this unprecedented good news, I have some doubts about its authenticity."

"None of us wants to see what happened to Holmes, whose company claimed it could detect cancer with a drop of blood, only to find out it couldn't do what she claimed."

Stephanie was afraid that Zheng Li was too young to know who Elizabeth Holmes was.

"I'm not doubting you, I just want to confirm the authenticity of your message."

Zheng Li nodded and said, "I understand your concerns. Regarding this discovery, I have written a paper on the experimental process and conclusions and sent it to The Lancet."

"After receiving the endorphins and lipotropin trypsin peptides I sent them, the editors of The Lancet successfully replicated the experiment and the results in mice."

"The paper will be on the cover of the latest issue of The Lancet. You can also contact your trusted laboratory to reproduce the experimental steps in it."

(End of this chapter)