Chapter 37: Biotechnology R&D Base

"Recently, Philip Dixon, chairman of the Drug Safety Committee, was investigated by the London police for suspected bribery..."

"Affected by the coffee gate incident, the stock prices of companies such as Wellcome, Zeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline continued to fall, and have been hitting the daily limit for a week, with a market value of about 300 million pounds evaporated..."

"Due to the impact of the October stock market crash, the market reacted strongly to the daily limit of several companies' stocks. Experts interpreted that the sharp drop in medical stocks this time would not cause a chain reaction, and called on shareholders not to panic..."

Murphy curled his lips, "It's their bad luck."

In October of this year, the world had just experienced a major stock market crash. On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Index fell 508.32 points in one day, a drop of 22.6%. In more than 6 hours, the New York stock index lost 500 billion, which was equivalent to one-eighth of the US GDP at the time.

That day was called Black Monday by Wall Street.

The terrible panic immediately swept the world, and stock markets in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other places plummeted.

By the end of October, the British stock market had fallen by 26%, and countless millionaires became destitute overnight.

Even though a month or two had passed, the terrible memory of the stock market crash still lingers in people's minds, and countless people have become frightened birds.

This time, the stock prices of these pharmaceutical companies fell temporarily because of Murphy's false accusations. If it were in the past, they might have done a good job of public relations and cut off, and they would have recovered soon.

But this time, not only did the pressure from public opinion grow, but it also happened to catch up with the biggest stock market crash in history, which directly drove its stock price to the bottom, and even the entire medical sector was greatly affected.

In response, Murphy could only toast with Patrick to express his condolences.

This is not just gloating. Their shrinking market value has also brought substantial benefits to Murphy. For example, a research institute under Wellcome was originally valued at more than 5 million pounds and was not sold. Now it is directly asking the umbrella to buy it for 1 million pounds.

They are in urgent need of the understanding of the umbrella company, and they can agree to any conditions, otherwise their family will collapse.

Murphy was naturally not polite, and had already acquired three research institutions in a package. If it weren't for the fact that they were already enough, Murphy planned to buy all their pharmaceutical factories.

At the same time, taking advantage of the rising reputation of the umbrella company, Murphy also launched several rounds of financing, splitting and selling 8% of the shares for nearly 100 million pounds.

The only pity is that the stock market is really not good now. Otherwise, if it is listed at this moment, it would not be difficult to jump into the circle of billionaires with the reputation of the skyrocketing.

However, Murphy is not greedy, this is enough, there is no need to take too big steps, just move forward steadily.

With the money, Murphy's research institute plan can finally be launched.

Thanks to the early preparations, a series of issues such as approval, land acquisition, and design were quickly completed. In the spring of 1988, the umbrella group's biotechnology research and development base was officially laid and started.

Hertfordshire.

Murphy met Patrick wearing a hard hat.

"How is the progress of the project?"

"Let's go, I'll take you to the mountain."

Patrick took Murphy up a hillside and saw a construction site under construction in the middle of the wilderness below.

"A total of 970 acres (about 5,900 acres), divided into six areas. The one currently under construction is Area 1, with three main buildings. The largest one is the Baiyao Plantation, which has 17 floors and a construction area of ​​about 19 acres (115 acres). The remaining two buildings are based on our original plan. One is the Baiyao Medicinal Material Cultivation and Optimization Base, and the other is the Baiyao R&D Center."

According to their previous plan, Area 1 is mainly used for the cultivation and research and development of cloud Baiyao.

The plantation adopts the three-dimensional farm design suggested by Patrick. Currently, a test farm has been built. If the effect is verified, three more three-dimensional farms will be built.

The purpose of the Baiyao R&D Center is to separate the core components of Baiyao from Baixian essence, clarify its molecular biological mechanism, and study more efficient preparation methods.

This is a place that can produce Nobel Prize-level results. Before it has started to be built, there are already a dozen famous scholars who want to join it.

The purpose of the medicinal material cultivation and optimization base is to study Baixian from the perspective of botany, combine gene editing, cell engineering, mutagenesis, hybridization and other breeding technologies, optimize the effective ingredients of Baixian and increase its yield.

In addition to Area 1, in the future, Murphy will also open up research areas for magic potions such as beauty potions, bone spirits, blood tonics, etc. These extremely magical magic potions, each of which contains biological mechanisms that may be one or even several Nobel Prize-level discoveries.

These are all treasures, and Murphy will never waste them easily.

In his imagination, in the future, he will also establish a magic plant breeding base to mass-produce various magic plants. He has even bought a lot of seeds. When the cultivation of white fresh dahlia is on the right track and the Umbrella Company has accumulated some experience in magic plant cultivation, he can start.

At the same time, there must be a magical animal breeding center. There are so many magical creatures in the wizarding world. Not only can their body tissues be used as potion materials, but some magical animals themselves have magical abilities that are very worthy of research. This is another extremely rich treasure.

Of course, the magic spell research institute is also a must. It's just that the accumulation of Muggle technology that can be used in this area is not as much as that of magic potions. Moreover, if you want to let Muggle researchers participate, you must carry out in-depth cooperation with wizards, which may contain considerable risks. Murphy plans to start on a small scale in the future and test the waters first.

Thinking that there are countless exciting projects waiting for him to realize in the future, Murphy feels full of energy.

Isn't this more interesting than replying to those boring letters at the shitty pest consultation office?

"How long will it take to build the entire area?" Murphy asked.

"The work of leveling the land has been basically completed. The foundation pouring will take about a month, the main structure will take three months, and the pipeline decoration will take two months. If it's fast, it should be put into use in half a year."

Different from ordinary simple factory buildings, both the R&D center and the three-dimensional plantation are high-rise three-dimensional buildings with much more complex structures. The amount of work even exceeds that of ordinary residential areas and office buildings.

Half a year is indeed very fast.

This is also the result of the umbrella's cost-saving.

But Murphy still feels that it is a bit slow. Although he intends to use magic to speed up the progress, with his magic power, the role he can play in such a large-scale construction project is very limited, so he can only give up after thinking about it.

"It'll be half a year. Before that, we'll rent a few places and set up the platform. For the research institutes that we bought, we'll stop the research that hasn't made much progress, divide the work among them, and let them all do the research on Baiyao."

"Investigate and communicate with the scholars who wanted to do research before, and the scholars on the list recommended by Rita. Hire them if they have similar abilities."

"Well, the company needs to recruit more administrative staff, so let's organize a large-scale recruitment." Patrick suggested.

"Go for it! Go for it boldly. If you want money, you have money. As long as you have the ability, you can offer as much salary as you want. After making this 100 million, I can just sell some shares."

Patrick smiled, "It's as if our shares are cabbage."

"If it can't be exchanged for money, it's just a piece of white paper, which is worse than cabbage." Murphy didn't care about it.

"By the way, there is one more thing. Since you want to let researchers participate in the research of Baixian, what do you think about confidentiality?"

Murphy frowned, "Indeed, this is a big problem."

It's not that I'm afraid that the secret of the composition of Baixian essence will be leaked to the Muggle world and copied, but I'm mainly worried about the wizards.

"First sign a confidentiality agreement that will make them lose everything. I'll tell you when there is a better way."

There shouldn't be any major results in the research of Baixian essence for a while, so this kind of confidentiality agreement is enough, but in the long run, it's safer to have a whole confidentiality magic.

I don't know if that guy Wood has found any clues?

(End of this chapter)