Chapter 476 Negotiation
No one expected that after Ding Ning’s first open class was over, the whole lecture hall fell into chaos.
A group of girls started a tearing battle because of their quarrels, and then their escorts joined it. The first large-scale school brawl had occurred since the establishment of the medical college.
Zhao Jingjing clenched her lips and went out from the scuffling crowd, looking a bit gloomy. “It seems that the gap between me and him is getting larger and larger. Perhaps, I need to work harder and catch up with him.”
Knowing nothing about all this, Ding Ning smiled and fully entrusted the establishment of the branch college to Principal Lu and his colleagues, and he continued to be a happy free man who did not help them at all.
However, he generously contributed 200 million yuan, which solved the school’s shortage of funds, and became the largest investor of the College of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Anaesthesia. Even if he was not the executive in the future, he would still be the biggest director of the board.
After receiving a call from Xu Minglu, Ding Ning, who felt very sorry and declined the invitation to have lunch with the professors, hurried to the appointed place.
It was not the first time for Ding Ning to visit the Caidie Restaurant. Last time, he accompanied Murong Yanran to a banquet and made Wang Xianghua spend lots of money, with the drinking expense reaching 30 million.
The manager on duty, who recognized him the drinking god, smiled so broadly that his eyes had been narrowed into a slit, and he came to guide him in person.
Xu Minglu was waiting for him at the door of the Butterflies Loving Flowers Box. As soon as he saw him, he joked with a smile, “Should I call you Professor Ding or Executive Ding?”
The manager on duty, who knew what he should do, ready to turn around to leave, shivered and turned around to look at Ding Ning. “Professor? Executive? Are you kidding? He is so young!”
“Well, Brother Xu, don’t make fun of me.”
Ding Ning chuckled and throwing his arm around Xu Minglu’s shoulder, asked seriously, “Brother Xu, how could you have time to invite me to dinner today?”
“Brother, you’ve been promoted to an executive and also become a professor. Can I not congratulate you by preparing a celebration?”
Seeing that Ding Ning did not change his attitude toward him because of the change of his status, Xu Minglu then resumed his previous address of him.
The manager on duty, who was picking up his ears and slowing down his steps to eavesdrop, almost fell to the ground. After he stood up awkwardly, his complexion changed constantly.
“God, it’s true. It’s amazing that such a young professor is also an executive.”
Aware of this, Ding Ning gave a wry smile. “Brother Xu, we have a very good relationship, so don’t treat me with so much courtesy.”
Xu Minglu laughed. “Go, let‘s go in and talk.”
As soon as the box door was pushed open, Ding Ning saw Mayor Du drinking tea on the sofa and looking at him with a smile.
“Mayor Du, why are you also here?”
Ding Ning asked in surprise, for he would have thought that Xu Minglu alone prepared the celebration for him.
“It’s rare for Minglu to treat someone, so why couldn’t I come for a free meal?”
Without putting on airs, Mayor Du stood up with a smile and joked.
“Ha-ha, you are so polite, Mayor Du.”
Ding Ning forced a smile and wondered what Mayor Du came to him for.
“No Mayor Du. Didn’t I tell you that you just call me uncle in private?”
Mayor Du pretended to be angry and said.
“Uh…then as you say, Uncle Du!”
Ding Ning felt uneasy, but he still changed his address.
“Ah, that’s right. Come and have a seat. You are the guest of honor today, so you must take the most honored seat.”
Mayor Du beamed and forced Ding Ning to take the most honored seat.
“No, no, Uncle Du, you are slapping me in the face.”
Naturally, Ding Ning would not assume he was more important and firmly refused to sit in the most honored seat. After Ding Ning refused for some time, Mayor Du finally took the most important seat. Xu Minglu and Ding Ning sat on both sides of him.
Drinks and dishes came up soon. Since Mayor Du still had work to do in the afternoon, he had to drink tea instead of alcohol, but he gave Xu Minglu a half-day off, asking him to drink heartily with Ding Ning.
The three of them chatted and smiled happily. After drinking for a few rounds, Mayor Du turned serious and began to talk about the real business. “Little Ding, I want to know your opinion on something.”
“Uncle Du, just say it.”
Ding Ning was very curious about what Mayor Du wanted him to do and put down his chopsticks, showing that he was listening attentively.
“It is about the patent right of the Rice Bean Oral Solution.”
Speaking of the business, Mayor Du became serious. “Can the formula and patent right of the Rice Bean Oral Solution be sold to the state? You can ask for any price you want? Of course, you have the right to refuse, and I am just negotiating with you on behalf of the state.”
After finishing speaking, he stared closely at Ding Ning and felt extremely nervous. If he could settle this through the negotiation, he would definitely gain an exceptionally great political achievement, and then he would have one more guarantee for entering some department of the national ministries and commissions after the change of office next year.
Although it was only a transfer at the same level, Yan Jing officials were closer to the center of power than local officials. With his achievements and qualifications, he would be able to routinely gain the vice-state level after working for another three or five years.
Ding Ning had considered this issue long ago. He said indifferently before Mayor Du waited too long, “I will not sell the patent right to anyone, but I will grant the production right and the right to sell to the state for free.”
“Are you serious?” Mayor Du stood up instantly and asked in joyful surprise.
“Of course,” Ding Ning answered firmly.
“What is your condition then?”
After the surprise, Mayor Du soon calmed down and asked in a way of doing business with serious principles.
After all, the Rice Bean Oral Solution was developed by Ding Ning, who would not do this without getting any benefits. In his view, even if Ding Ning did not ask for an extremely high price, he would put forward some harsh conditions.
He thought that Ding Ning was very likely to ask for a commission based on the ratio of product sales. This was equivalent to the situation that he would not need to do anything in this life but could make money because even if he lay in bed, countless drug manufacturers would work for him and he would get profits from every piece of the Rice Bean Oral Solution sold.
Although such a condition was not excessive and the state would certainly agree to it, he would always give others a feeling of stressing the importance of himself, and this would probably leave a bad impression on the Central Agency bosses. Since he was greedy, others would not like him no matter how capable he was, so Mayor Du had lots of worries.
“I do have a condition. Mayor Du, you should know that the Rice Bean Oral Solution is a new drug that can replace all antibiotics, so my condition is…”
Ding Ning paused and then said softly as Mayor Du stared at him nervously, “When the Rice Bean Oral Solution is sold in China, its market prices shall be uniformly set by the state and the profit shall not be more than the amount of the cost price, let alone it will be a tool for some pharmaceutical companies to make a fortune.”
“That is all?”
Mayor Du was still waiting for what came next, but he found that Ding Ning had shut his mouth and seemed to had finished, so he could not help asking in shock.
“That is all!”
Ding Ning nodded affirmatively. He knew what Mayor Du was thinking, but he would never do that. Although he needed money very much, he still had more important things to do compared with making money.
Mayor Du took a deep look at him and finally understood why Ding Ning insisted on retaining the patent right and only authorized the state to produce and sell it: He wanted to allow the domestic civilians to use an affordable drug to resist the invasion of Western drugs.
By retaining the patent right, he would make an issue of overseas agency rights, promoting the Rice Bean Oral Solution to the whole world and earning money from foreigners in turn.
As the owner of the Rice Bean Oral Solution, he had nothing wrong with this request. Mayor Du believed that the Central Bureau bosses would not object to it and would praise him a lot. After all, this action of his was truly in line with the idea of reviving the traditional culture of the country. The difference was that the state would have earned a large amount of foreign exchange, but now it would only go into his pocket.
But huge profits also meant huge risks at the same time, and those Western pharmaceutical giants were not kind people.
Mayor Du opened his mouth, trying to persuade him, but after thinking for a while, he said nothing.
Ding Ning was very strong-minded. Since he dared to do so, he must have his own reason. The drug was developed by him with great efforts, but he was willing to authorize the state to use it free of charge, which meant that he had done his utmost.
If he said anything more, Ding Ning would easily take it as an action to force him to submit in the name of national justice, and that was not the result he wanted.
“Okay, I’ll report to my superiors as soon as possible. There should be no problem.”
Mayor Du knew very well that the Central Agency bosses would never have any objection to this happy situation. After all, an affordable drug was in the interests of the country.
As for overseas markets, let’s say something unpleasant to the ear: As long as Ding Ning was still a Shenzhou native, the bosses would not have any opinions and would applaud as a celebration to show their strong support even if he earned all the money the world had.
Looking at Mayor Du with clear eyes, Ding Ning took out a bottle of medicine and handed it to him. “Uncle Du, I just developed an anti-rejection drug. I want you to use your relationships to help me speed up some drug testing procedures.”
“An anti-rejection drug? What is it used for?”
Mayor Du took the drug with great curiosity and studied it.
Ding Ning picked up some food, put it into his mouth, and explained, “Almost every patient who undergoes an organ transplant operation will have different degrees of rejection of the transplanted organ. The anti-rejection drug I developed can eliminate this rejection, so I call it an assimilation drug.”
“What?” Mayor Du and Xu Minglu both cried out and looked at Ding Ning in great shock.
Mayor Du’s hands even began to tremble. He put away the drug gingerly, for fear of breaking it.
To give a simple example, with the development of medicine, not only one or two successful cases of heart transplant surgery had appeared.
But in fact, patients who had a heart transplant would have different degrees of rejection for different reasons, and it was even inevitable for those perfectly matched cases. This meant that many seemingly successful heart-surgery operations did not make the patients fully recover because various sequelae would appear due to rejection.
Most of them would have organ failure or other complications due to the rejection of the organ within a few years after the operation. Thus, they had to undergo the heart transplant surgery again to prolong their lives, and some with serious conditions would even die directly.
How to solve the rejection phenomenon after organ transplantation had turned into a big problem in the medical field. If the assimilation drug could really solve this difficult problem, it could be imagined how sensational this would be.
Although they did not understand medical skills, they knew the importance of this small bottle of medicine. If it was as true as Ding Ning said this bottle of assimilation medicine could overcome the rejection of transplanted organs, that was to say, he had solved another worldwide medical problem, and he would be awarded in the next Nobel Prize evaluation.
Two consecutive Nobel Prize laureates! What was the meaning of that? If the Central Agency bosses knew the advent of this assimilation drug, as long as Ding Ning did not put forward any conditions beyond the bottom line of the tolerance of the state, they would probably accept them all.
Mayor Du was a smart person. In a few quick turns of his mind, he soon understood Ding Ning’s intention and could not help shaking his head and smiling bitterly about it.
“This little guy is afraid that the Central Agency bosses will not like the fact that he keeps the overseas agency rights, so he takes out the assimilation drug. I am afraid that asking me to help with the drug test is not his real intention, and his real intention is to show his value to the Central Agency bosses through me!”
Sincerely, he praised him in his mind. “This guy is not only talented, but also has political wisdom, and he is good at guessing people’s minds. If he comes to the political sector, he will have a promising future!”