Chapter 57: A Next-Generation General Hospital (4)
Ring!
While Young-Joon was reading the email from the Getty Foundation, he got a new email in his personal inbox. It was from A-Bio’s management department.
[This is a collection of emails regarding donations.]
It was working hours in Korea due to the time difference. They were sorting through thousands of emails and picking out the business-related ones that Young-Joon must read. When he clicked on it, he realized that the Getty Foundation email wasn’t the only one.
[We will organize small donations from individuals in a separate email and post a draft soon. We have compiled the emails that you should see as soon as possible.]
A link leading to the individual emails showed up as he scrolled down.
[This email is regarding donations from the Getty Foundation.]
[This email is regarding donations from the Abu Dhabi royal family.]
[This email is regarding donations from the British Royal Palace.]
[This email is regarding donations from the Ford Foundation.]
[This email is regarding donations from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.]
[This email is regarding donations from Guo Guangchang, a wealthy Chinese businessman.]
[This email is regarding donations from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, an Indian investor.]
‘...’
After reading them, Young-Joon saw that none of them were going to donate right now; they wanted to set up a meeting for a donation contract. Although a financial reward didn’t follow like an actual investment, people had reached out to him to donate to increase their brand worth by leaving their name on the hot topic of the next-generation hospital, or purely out of real humanitarianism.
Finally, it was time for Alice, the translator, to work after the meeting with Director James.
There was a little time before the IUBMB opened. In that short time, Young-Joon had to leave Rhode Island, check in at his hotel in New York and meet the sponsors who had the time or were in the city.
[The HR team is planning to hire a secretary for you. We will proceed if you confirm.]
That was the last sentence written in the email that management sent him. Young-Joon felt the pain that the management employees would have felt while sorting the thousands of emails.
‘I feel a little bad.’
A venture company that was launched a few months ago didn’t usually receive thousands of emails overnight. It was normal for the company email, which was managed by management, to only receive a few dozen at the most.
‘I didn’t think that thousands of people would want to send me an email.’
The employees working in management would have also been shocked.
[Good work. Please go ahead with the secretary hire. And please list my personal email on the company website. I will receive personal emails addressed to me by that address.]
Young-Joon responded.
* * *
This year, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, or IUBMB, held their conference at New York University. It was not a venue strictly for academic exchange, but a place with strong business characteristics. Several start-ups and venture companies opened their booths, then went to find other booths to hold meetings and discuss each other’s business. They had to move fast in order to recruit investors and staff, and they had to draw in people who were walking past by handing out gifts. Celligener was one of them.
Song Ji-Hyun was sitting at the booth with Scientist Kim Soo-Chul. They were discouraged after hitting the wall of extreme indifference.
“No one is coming,” Kim Soo-Chul said in a depressed voice. “Even if we give people gifts and hold them here, they just leave, right? Ji-Hyun sunbae, what’s the matter with us?”
“There are over thirty start-up booths open today, and they are all pretty well-known. Plus, there are booths from larger, medium-sized businesses as well. And most of all, A-Bio opened a booth today. Everyone is interested in A-Bio among start-ups or small companies.”
“True.”
Kim Soo-Chul nodded.
“But I guess he isn’t here yet.”
He pointed at the empty booth across from them. A-Bio’s booth was put along with the other start-ups and small businesses since they were classified as a venture company. About thirty people had passed by here in the last two hours in order to meet Young-Joon. Some of them even took selfies in front of the empty booth.
‘It’s not some sort of tourist attraction...’
“We’re the same venture company, but there’s a huge difference.”
“It’s because they are in the eye of the hurricane right now.”
“Ji-Hyun sunbae, didn’t you say that you kind of knew him personally? You said you had drinks with him once.”
“We did once. Just one. Before he got famous. We don’t know each other personally.”
Song Ji-Hyun’s ears became red.
Clack clack.
With the sound of dress shoes, three good-looking men wearing suits showed up. They chatted together in fluent English while glancing at A-Bio’s booth.
“He’s not here yet.”
“Do you think something happened?”
“It could have. He’s really busy, so it’s a possibility.”
Listening to their conversation, Kim Soo-Chul whispered to Song Ji-Hyun, “Sunbae, those people are from Fidelity.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s an investment company. It’s a company made by a legendary investor from Wall Street named Peter Lynch.”
“Oh.”
Song Ji-Hyun nodded.
“It would be nice if we got investments from places like that. Escape A-Gen’s hands... Right, sunbae? Should I call them?”
“I’ll talk to them.”
Song Ji-Hyun quietly left the booth with a paper gift bag in her hand and approached them.
“Hello.”
Song Ji-Hyun greeted them with a wide smile, but Fidelity didn’t seem too interested.
“Hello. We’re from a company called Celligener.”
“Oh, sorry, We’re a little busy.”
She was shot down immediately. She said goodbye in embarrassment and returned to her seat.
“It’s not easy.”
“Sunbae, look at that booth over there. They’re having a meeting with Roche.”
Located diagonal from them was a booth from a venture company called G-Protein Medicine. And employees from Roche, a huge company, were sitting at the booth doing an investment meeting.
“That’s the place doing the clinical trial for the leukemia treatment, right?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.
“Yes. The technology isn’t really that amazing if you look at their trial data, but it seems to slightly lengthen their survival.”
“It’s worth their attention.”
“Sigh, we shouldn’t have sold Cellicure like that,” Kim Soo-Chul added like it was unfortunate that they did.
A few more people appeared in front of A-Bio’s booth. They were administrative staff from famous medical schools and people from Schumatix, Roche, Pfizer, and others. It seemed like they were all waiting for Young-Joon.
“Watching them be like that right in front of us... It’s a little too much,” Kim Soo-Chul said, scratching his head.
“Hello.”
Suddenly, a picky-looking man with glasses came to Celligener’s booth and sat down. It was the Fidelity employee that had told Song Ji-Hyun that they were busy.
“Oh, hello.” Song Ji-Hyun quickly greeted him. “Have you ever heard of Celligener...”
“Oh, sorry, but is A-Bio opening today? Or has CEO Ryu Young-Joon just stepped out for a little bit? I was just wondering about that.”
“...”
“I am not sure. But he hasn’t been here since we opened our booth,” Kim Soo-Chul replied.
“I see. Thank you.”
The man got up from his seat and returned to his group.
“Seriously...” Song Ji-Hyun mumbled in a depressed voice. “Our company is also capable and has potential too...”
“I know, right.”
“It’s not easy for a venture company to make an early liver cancer treatment just two years after starting and get it into a clinical trial,” Song Ji-Hyun complained like it was unfortunate.
More people were gathering, but there were nothing but flies flying around Celligener’s booth. There were meetings happening everywhere, but their booth was the only quiet one.
“I’m going to get some fresh air.”
Frustrated, Song Ji-Hyun stood up.
On the way out of the building...
“Our drug controls the number of white blood cells by using antibodies that target structures on their surface...”
Song Ji-Hyun could hear the people from G-Protein Medicine explain the development process of the leukemia drug to Roche. She stole a glance at them, and Roche looked quite happy.
‘They’re going to get investments from them.’
* * *
Song Ji-Hyun was having a can of coffee while sitting on the bench in front of the building. To be honest, she was envious of all the other venture company booths that were here. She was confident she could advertise the fact that they went to phase one of clinical trials with an early liver cancer treatment if someone sat down at Celligener’s booth. But the problem was that she couldn’t even get to that part. Here, Celligener was a completely nameless company. They had some people show interest, but they were buried under the booths of hundreds of famous companies.
‘Is this natural since all we’ve been doing is A-Gen’s subcontracts?’
Song Ji-Hyun let out a bitter sigh.
‘Let’s go back inside.’
Sitting out here wasn’t going to do anything. A-Bio was an unusual case, and it was probably normal for start-ups to start in indifference, like Celligener.
As Song Ji-Hyun was about to get up from the bench, she could see Young-Joon far away. Four security guards from K-Cops were surrounding him. Young-Joon was talking to three employees from A-Bio who came to help and two men who looked to be investors. The woman wearing sunglasses in the middle translated for him.
After some time, people began swarming to that group like clouds.
Swoosh!
As the main entrance doors opened behind Song Ji-Hyun, the employees from Fidelity Investments ran out. They had heard that Young-Joon was here. Following them, people from Schumatix, Roche, Pfizer, and the IUBMB employees from New York University came pouring out. They ran toward Young-Joon as if they were escorting him inside.
“Sir!”
“Hello, sir. We are from Fidelity Investments.”
“Hello. We are from the Harvard Medicine Administration.”
“Sir, we are from the IUBMB conference. You didn’t participate as a speaker at our conference. If...”
Young-Joon was slowly walking toward Song Ji-Hyun while talking to them, but suddenly stopped.
“Oh.”
He had seen Song Ji-Hyun, who was a little frozen in surprise.
“Hello, Doctor Song,” Young-Joon said in Korean. Everyone stared at her.
“Oh... Yes. Hello,” She awkwardly responded.
“I was going to talk to you about some business if I ran into you here, but I guess I was lucky.”
The inventors and scientists around them all looked confused.
“Business?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.
“Yes. Not here. Later. You’re at your booth, right? Did you come out here to take a break?”
“Yes. I’m going to head back inside.”
“Then let’s go together. We’re probably going in the same direction anyway since all the venture company booths are beside each other.”
Young-Joon joined Song Ji-Hyun. He quickly introduced her and Celligener to the curious investors around them.
“Celligener is a Korean venture company that is doing collaborative research with A-Bio.”
* * *
Kim Soo-Chul was pacing and on his phone while keeping the empty booth. He was surprised by the sudden appearance of a large crowd. It was because in the middle, Song Ji-Hyun was talking to Young-Joon and walking together. She came to their booth, greeted Young-Joon, and returned to her seat, which was next to Kim Soo-Chul.
“What happened?” He asked.
“We met at the front of the building.”
She had received the interest of investors in the five minutes she walked here, talking to Young-Joon. As Song Ji-Hyun stood there, a little surprised at the unexpected attention, someone sat in front of her. They were the employees from Fidelity Investments.
“Pardon our behavior before.”
They formally apologized.
“We’re sorry, but could we still get to know Celligener?”
“Of course.”
Kim Soo-Chul handed them a pamphlet quickly. People were already lined up behind Fidelity Investments and waiting their turn.
Song Ji-Hyun gulped and began to promote Celligener.
“Celligener has developed Iloa, an early liver cancer drug, in just two years after launching...”
At the A-Bio booth across from them, Young-Joon was handing out USBs to two men wearing suits as gifts.
“These are USBs that have the A-Bio logo,” Young-Joon said. “The memory storage isn't very big, though.”
“Thank you. More than this, I wanted to see the A-Bio booth.”
They were the people responsible for the donation from the Gates Foundation. They had just signed a donation contract for fifty million dollars at the cafe nearby. Young-Joon was a little late to open the booth because of that, but it was okay. People who came after listening to his presentation at the International Integrative Brain Disease Conference had formed a long line in front of A-Bio’s booth.
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