New chapter!
Thanks for all the support!
x
“Right, Mr. Cross. How much are you planning to charge per dose?”
Hearing Evelyn’s comment, Dr.
Hart seemed to remember the question.
“For now, I’m setting it at seven hundred thousand per dose, with the public-insurance price at one hundred thousand. We will announce it once the channels are confirmed.”
Adrian stated the price he had already decided on.
“One hundred thousand, hm? That is fairly reasonable.” Dr.
Hart did not react strongly to the domestic price.
“What about overseas?”
“Overseas will definitely be higher. I have not settled the exact number yet.”
When he heard that, Dr.
Hart’s expression turned strangely sly.
Adrian almost shivered.
The old man looked far too pleased with himself.
“My suggestion? Keep the number and change the currency. Sell it to them for seven hundred thousand U.S. dollars.”
“Seven hundred thousand dollars per dose would not be bad.” Adrian had not expected the older scientist to be that ruthless.
“In that case, we should produce at full capacity for a month first and continue once the first inventory is nearly consumed.”
A harsher price was not a bad thing.
This was a perfect chance to make the overseas market bleed.
Even if only a small portion of patients could afford the drug at that price, the total income would still be enormous.
There were nearly forty million people living with HIV/AIDS around the world, but the number who could afford an expensive cure was much smaller.
Still, many of the patients who could pay were extremely wealthy.
No matter how the first sales were handled, Umbrella’s cash reserves would fill up fast.
At fifty thousand doses a day, domestic sales alone would generate at least five billion in revenue.
If those doses were sold overseas, that number would become thirty-five billion U.S.
As for cost, Adrian did not even consider it.
The money from a single overseas dose could produce more than a million doses.
While Adrian and Dr.
Hart were talking, Evelyn received a call.
“Boss, representatives from Southgate Medical Group and OneHeart Pharmacy have arrived. They want to discuss cooperation with you.”
“OneHeart?” Adrian thought for a moment.
“Then let’s meet them. There may be opportunities to cooperate in the future.”
OneHeart Pharmacy had more than two thousand pharmacies across the country.
If Umbrella produced over-the-counter drugs later, it could be a decent distribution channel.
When Adrian returned to the conference room beside his office, several suited visitors were already waiting.
“Mr. Cross, I have long admired your work.”
A round, heavyset man smiled warmly.
“I am the general manager of Southgate Medical Group.”
The other visitor was a middle-aged man with shrewd eyes, a vice president of OneHeart Pharmacy named Daniel Trent.
After the brief introductions, Adrian looked at Daniel.
“What kind of cooperation are you considering?”
“Southgate Medical Group is the third-largest pharmaceutical company in the country. We have two proposals…”
“Did I ask you?”
Adrian glanced at him and said flatly.
“We will produce the drug ourselves. Mr. Trent, how do you want to cooperate?”
Southgate Medical Group was in the same industry as Umbrella.
At present, Southgate was far larger.
Competitors were natural enemies.
Adrian did not particularly care, but he could already guess that whatever Southgate wanted to say would be unpleasant.
Since he had no use for them, he did not feel like wasting time.
“OneHeart has two proposals,” Daniel said with a smile.
“The first is simple. We are willing to pay one billion dollars to purchase the formula for your HIV/AIDS cure, while giving you five percent of future net profits.”
“The second is an exclusive distribution arrangement. We pay fifty million dollars upfront for sole sales rights, and you still receive five percent of net profits.” Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
After hearing that, Adrian gave him a cold smile.
“Evelyn, show them out.”
Did they truly think he was young enough to be cheated that easily?
Their greed was absurd.
They were offering crumbs while reaching for the entire prize.
If OneHeart had come to discuss normal agency or distribution rights, he would have had no issue talking.
But this was nonsense.
Adrian had no interest in wasting another word.
Both men stiffened the moment they heard him dismiss them.
They had assumed Adrian had only been forced into the president’s seat recently and had spent his life absorbed in scientific research.
He was barely in his twenties.
Surely, they thought, he lacked business sense.
With two industry giants pressuring him together, they might be able to buy him cheap.
They had not expected this reaction.
“Gentlemen, this way.”
Evelyn immediately gestured toward the door.
“To be honest, Johnson & Johnson submitted a $1.5 billion acquisition offer, and Mr. Cross tossed it into the trash without even reading it. Don’t you find your own offer ridiculous?”
Hearing the mockery in her tone, both men’s expressions darkened.
But businessmen adjusted quickly.
“Mr.
Cross,” the Southgate manager said with a laugh, “foreign companies may be stronger than domestic enterprises, but we are all citizens of the same country.
Technology like this cannot be allowed to fall into foreign hands.
If that happens, the advantage our country has gained in biotechnology will vanish.
History would remember us as traitors.”
“Mr. Cross, about the price…”
“Evelyn,” Adrian said, his voice flat, “call security.”
x x x