[314] News

Amsterdam Avenue in Uptown Manhattan, New York.

Duroc International Trading is a small importer and exporter.

Since this morning, the boss Duroc has been very busy, the door of the manager's office where he usually stays has been open to the staff hall outside, and the employees have been in and out with invoices for Duroc to sign, and Duroc is not idle at all, and runs out whenever he is free, urging the employees to count the inventory again and again.

"Billy, do you go check again and see how much streptomycin and isoniazid are left? Tell the warehouse that you can't let out a single box without my signature! ”

"Erwin, can you check the manifests that have been released in the past few days to see how many goods we have shipped?"

"Miss Sterling, inform Mr. Stafford of Citibank and ask him to sum up the book funds of Duroc International Trade and prepare me $200,000, and I will order new goods from Hong Kong in the afternoon!"

Mr. Duroc's round bald head was covered with fine beads of sweat, and he kept giving orders in his mouth, and he kept wiping the sweat with a brown linen handkerchief in his left hand. The right hand waved in the void, as if it would make the work of the employees work a little faster.

Duroc returned to his desk, sat down in a cheap white pine chair, and happily watched the intense work of the employees in the hall through the open door of the manager's room.

Since the beginning of the pharmaceutical trade with Hong Kong's Starlight Company, Duroc's happy life has begun, and the first batch of 50,000 US dollars of penicillin was booked and sold out before it arrived due to the price advantage. Such a brilliant result made Duroc decide to take a gamble, and ordered three batches of Bayer penicillin in a row, plus the first batch of $50,000, the total reached $120,000, which was all the cash that Duroc could call up at that time.

Because Duroc International Trading has a long reputation in the eastern United States, and the price of penicillin he sells is so cheap, the sales companies that do business with Duroc International Trade quickly sell out his first three orders.

The first three orders were quickly booked out, and the first $50,000 orders finally arrived after nearly three weeks of drifting on the sea, when the fourth order began to be available for sale from small clinics and family physicians scattered throughout the eastern states of the United States.

Duroc was already a little frightened at this time, in case there was a quality problem with the goods he purchased, it would be over. However, he was overjoyed by the subsequent sales feedback - not a single doctor complained about the quality of the German products! All the doctors who have used this Bayer penicillin say that it is the best quality penicillin they have ever used!

The next rhythm is a more turbulent round of orders! Duroc was under the tide of happy money, and the only thing that worried him greatly at this time was that his goods were still floating at sea in batches, and he could not come up with more cash to stock up. At this time, Xingguang Hong informed all the companies that they did business with that they had a new drug, a special drug against tuberculosis - streptomycin, and an oral drug with it - isoniazid.

In view of Xingguangxing's good reputation and excellent drug quality, Duroc contacted Xingguangxing, hoping to buy a batch of streptomycin, but after inquiring, he found out that the price of this drug was more than ten times that of penicillin, and the price of ten streptomycin per box was $150! Isoniazid also costs $80 a bottle. Duroc cautiously informed Starlight that he would first take a small amount of five dozen streptomycin, for a total of $9,000. Due to the lack of things, Duroc told Xingguang that this batch of goods should not be shipped by sea, but only sent by air, plus the air freight of 400 US dollars, which is only 9,400 US dollars, plus 30 bottles of isoniazid, which is more than 10,000 US dollars.

The advantage of this is that in a week Duroc will be able to get this purported anti-tuberculosis drug to swindle, even if the drug is not as good as Starlight boasts, at least for those tuberculosis patients who have been sentenced to death due to penicillin allergy or penicillin treatment. Duroc knows very well the mood of these dying people, as long as there is a glimmer of hope for survival, let alone Chinese medicine, even if it is and cat urine provided by witch sticks, they will not hesitate to buy and eat it at a high price.

When Duroc received these streptomycin labeled with Puhai Pharmaceutical Company, looking at these industrially produced aluminum foil-sealed pharmaceutical vials, Duroc's heart relaxed, at least these Chinese did not use damn paper bags or wax-sealed wooden bottles to package, such industrial packaging looks very deceptive.

There are also detailed instructions for use in Chinese and English in each box of streptomycin injection dry powder, and even include pharmacological instructions that are rarely marked in drugs in these years, as well as detailed side effect instructions, etc., in short, everything is clearly marked, and this superficial article is better than that of American drug companies, so that people can not see a trace of loopholes. Duroc was very satisfied with this, he knew that even if this medicine did not work, with this magnificent packaging, this batch of drugs could be completely discarded, and if it didn't work, it would be a big deal that he wouldn't be able to enter it next time.

So, Duroc tried to push this batch of new drugs to the local market in New York, and the price was set at $400 per box, with an average of $40 per bottle! If a tuberculosis patient is injected continuously for a month, it will cost $1,200, which is equivalent to the entire salary of a low-income ordinary worker in the American factory at this time with a daily salary of $40 without eating, drinking, or resting! However, this is not expensive compared to a drug that claims to be life-saving, and certainly not cheap.

Soon, a local private clinic in New York came to the door, and Dr. Pierre said that one of his patients had accepted the possible side effects of the drug and was willing to try his luck with it.

Duroc hesitated, Dr. Pierre's patient was only twelve years old, the child was already dying of tuberculosis due to his allergy to penicillin, and Duroc told Dr. Pierre to sign a waiver agreement, and asked the child's family to sign the agreement as well.

Even so, Duroc was still a little apprehensive, but when he thought about the profit of this medicine, he no longer hesitated. This is as Marx said, when the capitalists are faced with 100% profits, they will take risks......

When Dr. Pierre came to Mr. Chevre's house with three boxes of streptomycin bought from Duroc International Trade, Mrs. Chevr looked at him hopefully with a pair of haggard eyes and said, "Dr. Pierre, you got the medicine?" ”

"Yes, but before taking the drug, please sign the waiver agreement with Mr. Schaevre, this medicine may cause some side effects, I think I should let you know first."

Mr. Chevre, who had walked into the living room from his study, took the instruction manual that Dr. Pierre had taken out of the streptomycin box and read it carefully.

"This is Chinese medicine???!!! This manual is very detailed, huh? It may cause hearing loss, tinnitus, facial numbness...... Have the Chinese used a precedent? The result? ”

Dr. Pierre hesitated: "It should be effective, this explanation said that I have read it repeatedly, the pharmacological explanation is very thorough, and even the metabolic principles and pathways are clearly written, this should be written by a knowledgeable medical scientist with a conscience, it is said that the Chinese are already using this drug, and the effect is very good." I just don't know if it works for us Caucasians. ”

Mr. Chevr quickly took the waiver agreement, took the pen from his pocket, and immediately signed his name.

He turned his head to look at Mrs. Shevr and said, "Lisa, I believe this will be useful, the Chinese can use it, and our children will definitely be able to use it too!" The instructions are very well written, although I can't fully understand them. But I believe that this will save Mike! ”

Mrs. Sheffre nodded haggard and anxiously and said, "David, I am also willing, I can't watch my child go on like this anymore, Mike is coughing up blood every day, every time he coughs, it seems like he wants to cough out his heart, my heart is going to break......"

Dr. Pierre put away the waiver agreement signed by Mr. and Mrs. Shevre, put on a mask, and followed Mr. and Mrs. Shevre downstairs to the children's ward.

Dr. Pierre opened the medicine box he was carrying, and while injecting distilled water dissolving powder into the bottle of streptomycin dry powder, he patiently said to the child lying on the bed with a white face and coughing and twitching:

"Mike, bear with me, don't cough, I'm going to inject you, this is a new medicine, he might save your life."

After the injection, Dr. Pierre handed a bottle of isoniazid, a special drug made in China, to the Chevre, told them the daily dosage and left.

After a week of continuous streptomycin injections with oral isoniazid, the emaciated child, Mike, was able to sit up in bed and no longer coughed, even with occasional coughing.

Dr. Pierre looked at the smiles of the Chevres and felt very relieved, and a great sense of accomplishment urged him. With the consent of the Sheffres, he wrote an article under his real name and sent it to the New York Times, entitled "Hope for Tuberculosis Patients."

“…… Watching Mike recover day by day, and seeing the smiles reappear on the faces of Mr. and Mrs. Scheffl, I feel that I have an obligation to tell everyone that from today onwards, tuberculosis treatment is no longer a problem...... American scientists discovered in 1944 that streptomycin can kill tuberculosis bacteria, but Chinese became the first industrial production of streptomycin with low toxicity on Shijie...... We found that p-aminosalicylic acid can kill tuberculosis bacteria, but it is powerless to do anything about the strong irritation of the skin and respiratory tract caused by this substance, and Chinese was the first to invent the oral drug isoniazid to fight tuberculosis...... I've never seen an anti-TB drug that works so quickly, and the side effects are not too serious in this patient, compared to a saved life, the small side effects really can't be considered...... As a doctor, I must pay tribute to my Chinese counterparts, who have produced two amazing drugs that will bring a new dawn of life to all tuberculosis patients on Shijie, and the combination of these two new drugs will surely save countless lives, which is even greater for mankind than an anti-fascist Shijie war! In the United States alone, this drug treats 300,000 dying tuberculosis patients each year, saving their lives, which is equivalent to the total number of American soldiers killed in World War II! …… Here, I would also like to thank Mr. Duroc for his keen eye and benevolent love, and if it had not been for his timely introduction, poor Mike might have ......"