After being fired, I became the light of medicine

Chapter 71 Hepatotoxicity of Efovir!
Lucas was completely stunned, and gradually, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He finally experienced how powerful Zhang Yang was.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and stopped arguing:

"Okay, Zhang, let's get back on track."

"But the price of $5000 per dose is really too expensive. Even the UK National Health Center cannot afford it. Do you think it can be reduced?"

Lucas had a good attitude, and Zhang Yang finally made some concessions.

The final price was set at US$4500 per piece.

In addition, GlaxoSmithKline will be fully responsible for all clinical costs and process approvals for the Phase III clinical trial of "ITG eukogenin" in the UK.

Zhang Yang also wants to sell it for five, six, or even tens of thousands of dollars per piece.

He is very clear,

In addition to leaving a certain profit for GlaxoSmithKline, he also had to consider completing the deal.

If the talks fail, most British people can choose to fly to Southeast Asia for treatment, and by then they may not earn as much as they do now.

After reaching a preliminary cooperation intention with Lucas, Zhang Yang threw the subsequent contract details to Ren Xiaomin.

Brother Ren has sufficient experience in this area and there will be no problem in completing the contract.

Gradually, Zhang Yang, who had more free time, focused his energy on the "Starlight Project".

To be precise, it is placed on "Acofenprofovir".

Half an hour later, project leader Wei Tian appeared in the office.

Compared to two months ago, Wei Tian looked noticeably thinner and his temperament seemed much more restrained.

"Mr. Zhang, I'm here."

"Well, sit down first."

Zhang Yang motioned Wei Tian to sit down on the sofa.

In the past two months, he has hardly asked about the "Ekofovir" project. He only knows that the application for the Phase I clinical trial has been approved, but he has no idea about the specific progress.

"You have been working hard recently. Let me tell you how the Phase I clinical trial is going."

"Mr. Zhang, the progress is a bit slow."

Wei Tian lowered his head in shame, with a hint of bitterness on his face.

Then he whispered:
"Currently, our clinical trials are mainly conducted in the Third People's Hospital."

"Although we also have trial sites at West China Hospital and the Military Region Hospital, the competition is so fierce that we can't even get a group together in a month."

"But there aren't many hepatitis B patients in the Third People's Hospital, so the first step of recruiting patients is a bit difficult."

"Oh?"

Zhang Yang picked up the teacup and took a sip, then quickly reacted.

This time, "Ekofovir" participated in the official "Starlight Project". In theory, each pharmaceutical company can conduct clinical trials in any of the more than 600 tertiary hospitals across the country.

According to the plan, clinical trials of Ekofovir will be carried out in five hospitals, including the West China Hospital and the Military Region Hospital.

But he overlooked one point. Although top hospitals like West China have a large number of patients, there are also many pharmaceutical companies clustered there. A pharmaceutical company like Qingshan Pharmaceutical, which has no influence in the field of liver disease, may not be able to compete with others.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yang couldn't help but comfort him:

"It's okay, the Third People's Hospital is also very good!"

“Although the number of patients is smaller, Director Zhou and Director Feng Gang are both old acquaintances, so it is more convenient.”

"Don't worry, take your time." Wei Tian nodded, and his bitter expression finally eased a little.

Zhang Yang personally filled his glass with water.

"Then tell me about the other pharmaceutical companies participating in the 'Starlight Project'. How are their progress?"

"Ah."

Wei Tian raised his head and replied:
"Now everyone is paying the most attention to the US company Gilead, which has moved 'Hepcludex', which was originally undergoing phase II clinical trials at the US FDA, to China. Currently, the phase I clinical trial has been passed and the phase II clinical trial is now underway."

"Moreover, I looked at their latest published clinical data. Thanks to the support of the national 'Starlight Project', their Phase II clinical data has been significantly accelerated. I guess Gilead has also increased its R&D investment."

Zhang Yang nodded slightly, this is normal.

The "Starlight Project" not only provides 20 billion in research subsidies, but also subsidizes 70% of clinical costs. With the support of major hospitals, all pharmaceutical companies are willing to increase their investment.

"In China, Hengrui Medicine originally had a drug called HR-006 that was in Phase I clinical trials, and last month it successfully entered Phase II clinical trials. It can also be seen that Hengrui has increased its investment."

"Other domestic pharmaceutical companies that have been developing hepatitis B drugs before, such as Zhengda Tianqing and Guangshengtang, almost all have 1-2 drugs entering Phase II clinical trials."

"All in all, we are almost the last batch, and there are only a few pharmaceutical companies that are stuck in Phase I clinical trials like us."

Zhang Yang's eyes flashed with a hint of apology when he heard this.

In the past two months, he can be said to have thrown all the work to Wei Tian and the R&D team, but with their R&D capabilities, they are simply unable to push this matter forward.

But at this moment, Wei Tian continued:

"And the most troublesome thing is that I found that the ingredients in our new drug seem to have strong cytotoxicity, but this cytotoxicity has a certain killing effect on the hepatitis B virus!"

"If we don't solve the toxicity problem, I'm afraid we won't even pass Phase I clinical trials!"

Cytotoxicity?
Zhang Yang was startled and looked at Wei Tian in surprise.

Only he knew that the toxic ingredients in the medicine were actually designed by him!

To be precise, the "Afovir" provided by the system is actually a slightly toxic therapeutic drug.

There are currently three different solutions to cure hepatitis B in medicine.

The first type is Gilead's "Hepcludex" drug, which allows the drug to directly enter the liver cells and violently kill the hepatitis B virus.

This method is the traditional way of thinking about killing viruses. The difficulty lies in how to efficiently find the infected liver cells and successfully enter the liver cells to kill the hepatitis B virus.

After the hepatitis B virus enters the liver cells, it forms a covalently closed circular DNA which is extremely stable, and it is very difficult to break through the DNA structure and kill it.

The second type is such as Hengrui Medicine’s “HR-006”.

The solution is to use drugs to prevent the hepatitis B virus from entering liver cells. As long as the hepatitis B virus cannot enter the liver cells, it will lose its "parasitic environment". In this way, the only thing left to do is to kill the hepatitis B virus in the blood.

But this method also has its difficulties - how to efficiently and accurately interfere with each liver cell to prevent the hepatitis B virus from entering?

The third one is interferon.

Interferon has been around for more than 20 years. Its core is to inject interferon to induce the body's own immune cells to work and kill the hepatitis B virus through its own T cells.

But interferon needs to be injected for at least one year, and the side effects are extremely serious!
Hair loss and fever are mild symptoms. In severe cases, long-term hyperactivity of the immune system may even lead to serious side effects such as kidney disease, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

In addition, the actual successful treatment rate is around 20%, and it has hardly been promoted on a large scale.

What about "Afovir"?

"Afovir" is the first variant that violently enters liver cells!
The "benprofovir" in "Acofenprofovir" is a cytotoxic ingredient. Once the drug ingredient is absorbed by all liver cells through the blood.

There will be no problem after normal liver cells absorb it, it will only slightly accelerate the rate of cell failure by 10%.

Once the infected liver cells absorb the drug, the drug toxicity of "Afovir" will immediately be induced, accelerating the death of liver cells, thereby completely killing the hepatitis B virus!
(End of this chapter)