Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 546 The Generous Super-Rich
While ordinary people were beginning to pay attention to HT197, a neuroimmune-enhancing drug, a small group of super-rich people on Earth were closely watching ARE78, a core project of Galaxy Life.

This is a miracle drug that can make people look 10 or 20 years younger... at least that's what the revealed clinical trial data suggests.

Moreover, there are seven or eight other real-life examples of super-rich individuals who participated in the Phase IV clinical trial!

With this example, the persuasiveness becomes even stronger.

In response to the increasing number of inquiries, Xu Shenxue stated that the ARE78 project is progressing smoothly, all clinical trials are meeting expectations, and the drug is expected to begin supplying sponsors next year.

If a sponsor cannot wait, they can also participate in the Phase IV clinical trial.

As for the price, given the high cost of producing the drug, it is naturally impossible to supply it to the donors for free.

Although the funder has already provided at least $100 million in funding... this funding is a priority to ensure that the funder will be eligible to be among the first to use the anti-aging and life-extending drugs or technologies developed by Galaxy Life.

After all, this funding is for developing drugs or technologies... not for the actual production and operating costs of the drugs or technologies.

These two things need to be discussed separately.

Xu Shenxue initially hinted to the donors that the ARE78 drug wouldn't be too expensive, with an estimated annual cost of around ten million US dollars. He added that since they were all old friends who had known each other for many years, he wouldn't hold them back or make them suffer heavy losses; a small token of appreciation would suffice.

After all, the development of this drug was made possible by the generous funding from donors like you.

The money is just to keep the ARE78 project running... After all, the cost of drug preparation is very high, costing several million US dollars per person per year... Xu Shenxue exaggerated the cost tenfold, since no one knows the actual cost of preparation anyway.

Aside from the cost of manufacturing the drug itself, some of this money will be used for the subsequent research and development of the ARE78 project... This way, we can expect the ARE78 project to have even better efficacy in the future.

The annual fee of tens of millions of dollars per person may seem like a lot, but it's nothing to these super-rich people. Everyone said: This amount of money is nothing!
Xu Shenxue then stated that the funds raised by Galaxy Life over the years have been almost entirely spent, and the current operating expenses are supported by Galaxy Pharmaceutical. However, Galaxy Pharmaceutical is also under great pressure and cannot continue to fill the bottomless pit of Galaxy Life indefinitely.

That's right, the research and development at Galaxy Life is a bottomless pit... No matter how much money you have, it's never enough to make a living from research and development in the field of life and health.

So, shouldn't we start a new round of funding?
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The research and development investment of Galaxy Life is very large. The research and development of the ARE78 project alone has cost billions of dollars. And the subsequent research and development of this project will continue, which will also require further investment.

Meanwhile, Galactic Life has other projects to develop, especially a number of lifespan extension projects. Although each existing project seems hopeless and has a slim chance of success, requiring large-scale research like finding a needle in a haystack... but research still has to be done, otherwise why is everyone working on Galactic Life?
Therefore, Galactic Life now needs more funding!

This doesn't require hundreds of millions or billions of dollars; the future funding needs will start at tens of billions of dollars!

So, everyone should pay up...

In response to Xu Shenxue's request for a new round of financial aid, some super-rich individuals who are so poor they have nothing left but money said: Money is not a problem!
The current success of the ARE78 project has met their expectations, and they look forward to Galaxy Life achieving even greater success under Xu Shenxue's leadership.

For example, in the field of anti-aging, while ARE78 is good, it only restores bodily functions that were previously only a decade or two old. For someone in their eighties or nineties, restoring bodily functions that were previously only a decade or two old is equivalent to the level of someone in their seventies, which is not enough...

So, is it possible to continue research and development to further restore bodily functions, allowing people in their eighties or nineties to recover their bodily functions to the level of a sixty-year-old, or even a fifty-year-old?

There is also the field of life extension, where there has been no breakthrough yet. Could we increase investment, allocate more funds, manpower, and equipment, and achieve a breakthrough in this area?

Once their bodies regain youth, they become even more eager to extend their lifespan!

For this, they are willing to pay a sufficient financial price!

As a result, many super-rich individuals began a new round of payments, ranging from a few hundred million dollars to as much as a billion dollars.

The older the person, the more money they receive.

This round of fundraising, targeting only existing beneficiaries, has raised over seven billion US dollars in a short period of time...

Xu Shenxue also sighed at this... On this earth, there should be no entrepreneurial projects that can raise funds more easily than those of the Galactic Life.

When Galaxy Life was founded, it raised more than $3 billion in its first round of funding. It has received funding in subsequent rounds, and with this latest round, the total amount of funds raised has exceeded $20 billion.

Unfortunately... this $20 billion is not venture capital or similar funding. The investors won't receive a large number of shares; they'll only receive a symbolic, very small number of shares as proof.

This money is legitimate funding... These super-rich people are not giving money for stocks or future investment returns; all they want is for Xu Shenxue to work with Galaxy Life to develop anti-aging and life-extending drugs or technologies, and then they will have priority access to them.

That's it!

The reason they paid so readily this time was because Xu Shenxue and his Galaxy Life had initially proven themselves... Project ARE78 had been a success!
Now is the time for these super-rich to increase their bets... They are also hoping that Xu Shenxue, with Galaxy Life, can improve the efficacy of the ARE78 project and then develop a life-extending drug.

After accepting funds from this group of long-time donors, Xu Shenxue considered the matter and expanded the number of donors to raise more funds.

In the past, Galactic Life basically only accepted donations from a small group of the world's top billionaires, with a minimum amount of one hundred million US dollars. I wouldn't accept your donation if it was less than that... I wouldn't play with you!
Now, the threshold has been lowered, and some super-rich individuals who are not conglomerates but have considerable wealth may also receive an invitation: you are given the opportunity to fund Galaxy Life, the funding fee is only 50 million US dollars, and then you can obtain priority to use Galaxy Life's technological research and development results in the future.

This also includes the current ARE78 project... As long as a grant of 50 million US dollars is provided, one can join the ARE78 project and obtain the right to purchase and use the drugs, along with their immediate family members!
Of course, not just anyone can be accepted. Candidates still need to be selected, especially in terms of their ideals and abilities... Money alone is not enough!
Xu Shenxue hopes that by lowering the funding threshold this time, more funds can be obtained to support Galaxy Life's large-scale research and development in the next few years. Who knows, we might even be able to develop some new drugs or technologies... Although they may not be in the life and health field, other fields would be great too.

Xelocta and neuroimmunotherapy drugs are byproducts of research and development in the field of life and health... Isn't that great? Xelocta has saved countless lives in recent years.

Using the money of the super-rich to develop new drugs or technologies, and then using it to save the lives of ordinary people... Xu Shenxue felt that he had done a great thing.

In the future, as the technology of the ARE78 project is further developed, especially with a significant reduction in cost, making it affordable for ordinary people, Xu Shenxue will definitely promote the ARE78 project so that ordinary people can also use it.

The reason we're not promoting it now is simply because it's too expensive... The manufacturing cost alone is hundreds of thousands of dollars per person per year, and the massive R&D costs haven't even been taken into account. If those costs were included, it would be even more expensive. At this stage, there's no way to promote it.

Even if it's promoted, Galaxy Life doesn't have that much computing power available... Every time a drug is prepared for a patient, it requires calling the supercomputing center to run the algorithm.

A few hundred or a few thousand people is not a problem, even tens of thousands are fine!
However, if the scope is expanded to tens or hundreds of millions of people, the current computing power on Earth cannot support it.

However, the future is uncertain. As technology continues to advance, the cost of ARE78 will gradually decrease, while its computing power will continue to rise. In particular, superconducting quantum computers have begun to be used on a large scale. In the future, as the performance of superconducting quantum computers is further improved, computing power will once again see a significant increase.

Xu Shenxue estimated that the ARE78 project should be able to be popularized in at least ten years and at most twenty or thirty years... This time may seem very long for an individual, but it is extremely short in the long history of humankind!
At that time, the average physical fitness of humankind will be greatly improved... A sixty-year-old man will have the same physical functions as a forty-year-old. And an eighty-year-old man will be as active and energetic as a sixty-year-old.

This will greatly improve the quality of life for the elderly! At the same time, it will also significantly extend the overall work productivity of humankind... Although it may sound a bit unethical, being able to have a sixty-year-old doing the work of a forty-year-old, and an eighty-year-old doing the work of a sixty-year-old... is itself an improvement in human work productivity.

That's equivalent to increasing the overall efficient working time of humankind by more than ten percent.

At the same time, the significant improvement in physical function leads to an improved quality of life, which is actually very beneficial for extending lifespan... If you can still be active and energetic at eighty, then living to one hundred is not a big problem.

This will significantly increase the average lifespan of humans... potentially from the current seventy-something years to the eighty or even ninety years.

However, it is estimated that this will also bring some negative effects, such as further extending the retirement age to eighty?
Technological advancements always bring various positive or negative impacts... Xu Shenxue doesn't intend to delve too deeply into this.

After all, improving the physical function of the elderly, enhancing their quality of life, and extending their productive working hours are always good things.

Especially for some high-tech industries, such as scientists, the physical condition of a sixty-year-old and a forty-year-old will definitely result in different research outcomes.

This led Xu Shenxue to consider providing ARE78 drugs to some key scientists.

Many scientists are now quite old, with many in their sixties and seventies... Giving them ARE78 at this time, which can restore their physical functions to the level of a forty or fifty-year-old, will definitely improve their scientific research efficiency.

Even middle-aged and young scientists can achieve better physical function through this drug in their forties and fifties... It would be a great thing to have a forty-five-year-old body become a thirty-something-year-old body.

Xu Shenxue thought this idea had great potential!

He immediately instructed the human resources department of Liuhe Investment to compile a list of important middle-aged and elderly scientists from the major scientists in its various companies.

Once the ARE78 project has successfully completed its clinical trials and confirmed that there are no problems, we'll send them a copy one by one!
Of course, the number of people cannot be too large, otherwise the funds will not be able to support it... The fixed cost of ARE78 drug is about $500,000 per person per year!

A thousand people would cost $500 million annually!
And this isn't a one-time cost; it happens every year!
At the same time, considering the side effects of stopping ARE78, if these important scientists are provided with ARE78, it is best not to stop it afterward. Otherwise, they will face a two- to three-year period of weakness after stopping the drug, and various complications will suddenly arise, making treatment and recuperation troublesome.

Therefore, the number of people supplied cannot be too large. Xu Shenxue estimated that a list of several thousand people would be sufficient in the early stages, with each subsidiary company responsible for supplying at internal cost price as a benefit for important scientists!
Xu Shenxue was considering providing his scientists with the ARE78 drug to significantly improve their physical functions, increase research efficiency, and extend their research lifespan.

The medical community and even ordinary people are increasingly discussing HT197, a neuroimmune enhancer.

Neuroimmune enhancers initially circulated within a small circle of medical circles before gaining wider attention from industry bloggers, media professionals, and some ordinary people.

And now, some mainstream media outlets have also started reporting on it... because the effects of HT197 are just too obvious!
Numerous data from clinical trials have successively demonstrated the drug's powerful ability to enhance immunity!
Top doctors in many research hospitals have begun to try using this drug and apply for new clinical trials, such as for postoperative recovery and in combination with other drugs to treat recurrent bacterial infections.

Clinical trial findings on various neuroimmunological drugs are beginning to emerge frequently!
Although its overall impact is not as great as the launch of Xeloda back then, it is still considered big news in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years.

In response, in addition to Galaxy Pharmaceuticals, which initially released simple information, it also released new information regarding the neuroimmune-enhancing preparations that have attracted much attention.

The latest news mainly includes information about the Phase I clinical trial: the clinical trial demonstrated the extreme safety of the neuroimmune enhancement agent, with no side effects or interactions with other drugs found.

This exceptional safety profile is also the core reason why Galaxy Pharmaceuticals applied for over-the-counter drug approval for this new drug…

It's fine to eat it however you want, and you can even use it daily to boost immunity and prevent colds or other infections. Why would you need a prescription? People can just go to the pharmacy and buy it themselves.

If conditions allowed, Galaxy Pharmaceuticals would have even considered selling this product as a health supplement... However, although this medicine is highly safe, it is still a legitimate biological macromolecular drug, which is very different from a health supplement, and we can't really do anything reckless with it.

Meanwhile, Galaxy Pharmaceuticals also announced that its neuroimmune enhancement preparation has entered Phase II clinical trials in China, and has also begun clinical trials in multiple markets in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

As for other information, not much has been released, including the price, which is of great interest to many.

Galaxy Pharmaceuticals has always maintained a low profile and rarely engages in hype, both in its broad-spectrum anticancer drug Xeloda and in its neuroimmune-enhancing preparations.

Galaxy Life and Galaxy Pharmaceutical are developing relatively smoothly, so Xu Shenxue doesn't need to keep an eye on them every day. He also needs to shift his focus to other areas.

After all, his business empire is quite large, and many other areas are also very important.

In early November, Xu Shenxue visited VKOOL Electronics and listened to a report on the company's operations this year, especially the situation of several key core products.

Bai Qiwen, CEO of Vcool Electronics, told Xu Shenxue: "This year, we released two flagship models, the Blue Max11 and the Blue Max11 Pro, and sales have been very good!"

"Especially the Blue MAX11 model, this phone has had very high shipments this year, helping us to firmly establish ourselves in the 3,000 to 4,000 yuan price range!"

"This year, our Little Blue MAX series, including multiple models and older models, is expected to ship 35 million units. This will allow our Little Blue MAX series to firmly establish itself in the mid-to-high-end market, and further improve our gross profit margin, effectively boosting the overall profit level of our Vcool Electronics!"

"In the mid-to-low-end market, we mainly focus on the Blue Number series, and the sales of the Blue M series are also relatively stable. In particular, the sales of the Blue M series overseas continue to increase. In emerging markets such as ASEAN and India, our Blue M mobile phones are very competitive."

"With the addition of Vcool brand mobile phone shipments, our total mobile phone shipments this year are expected to reach 230 million units."

Vcool Electronics' mobile phone shipments mainly rely on the Blue M series. This phone is priced around 1,500 yuan and has a good price-performance ratio. It has always been Vcool Electronics' flagship product, with annual sales of over 100 million units. However, although the sales volume is large, in order to gain greater market competitiveness, the company adopts a cost-effective model, resulting in a low gross profit margin.

In Bai Qiwen's words, all you do is work yourself to the bone and earn a meager living!

The sales and profits of the Blue Number series can only be described as average, not bad, but nothing particularly outstanding.

A significant portion of the profits from Vcool Electronics' mobile phone business actually came from the Blue MAX series, which sold only over 30 million units.

The profit margin of the entire mobile phone business is actually not very high... After all, Vcool Electronics is just a mobile phone manufacturer that assembles components. The procurement of components is very expensive, and most of the profits are actually taken by core high-tech component suppliers such as Zhiyun Semiconductor, Zhiyun Storage, Huaxing Technology, and Hailan Battery.

Then, they also have to compete with rivals on cost-effectiveness. The overall gross profit margin is very low, and they all need revenue from the software sector, namely in-app advertising and in-app store revenue, to supplement it.

Vcool Electronics sells over 200 million mobile phones a year, but the profits are less than a fraction of what Zhiyun Group earns from its mobile phone business...

Of course, this isn't just the case for Vcool Electronics. Even Samsung's mobile phone business doesn't earn as much as a fraction of Zhiyun Group's mobile phone business!

Therefore, Vcool Electronics' business is quite diversified. It is involved in the smart ecosystem and sells all sorts of miscellaneous smart terminal products, such as laptops, tablets, children's smartwatches, Bluetooth headsets, speakers, TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, water heaters, robot vacuums, and even drones!
They like to do a little bit of everything, using their brand advantage to boost sales... Although individual businesses don't earn much, they have a variety of business types, so the overall results are quite good.

Their business model is somewhat similar to that of rice... and these two companies have become the biggest competitors. Their prices are similar, their business ecosystems are similar, and even the core components they use are exactly the same. The two companies are competing fiercely with each other!
Under these circumstances, Bai Qiwen wanted to break through the encirclement by focusing on other business areas!
This new business is virtual devices and smart electric vehicles!
(End of this chapter)