I can extract side effects

Chapter 501 Fifth Generation Insulin

"What unique skills do the Big Three have to maintain their monopoly in the field of insulin for a hundred years?"

Facing the urging questions of the two, Gu Xian did not answer right away, but asked directly.

"If you were Eli Lilly, or Novo Nordisk, what would you do?"

Xue Shen immediately said: "Does this need to be said? Of course, it is to apply for a patent, erect high patent barriers, and obtain a legally bound 'monopoly' license."

"But the patent expires in more than 20 years, and it cannot be guaranteed for a hundred years."

Xue Shen smiled triumphantly: "I can answer this question, of course, it is to constantly change the insulin production process and injection packaging, and then apply for new patents, stack codes layer by layer, and continue to pile up my patent wall until a thick moat is formed. "

"When insulin 1.0 expires, I have already launched 2.0. Before 2.0 expires, my 3.0 version is already on the way."

"Competitors will always be left behind, and they can't even catch up with my exhaust."

"Anyway, I have a first-mover advantage. The sales channels in the entire market are my people, and my interests are firmly tied to me. Who can refuse me?"

"Every time someone questions why my price is so expensive, I will throw out the prepared remarks, why the supply chain is too complicated, the fermenter is often invaded by phages, all the strains in it are eaten up, the investment in improving the production process is huge, and the hospital sales The cost is too high, blabla, anyway, we have to leave the blame to the market and the hospital.”

"It's best to increase the price when a new version is launched, and then reduce the price of the old drug, and the patients will not be grateful."

"Even if there is medical insurance, my new drugs will not be added. I only reimburse patients for outdated old drugs, and let doctors say that new drugs are effective, so as to lure patients to buy new drugs."

"I acted recklessly and covered the sky with one hand. I also sent the former president to manage the FDA and rejected all new drug applications from competitors."

"Tsk tsk, insulin is a life-saving drug for diabetic patients. They can't live without it, just like fish can't live without water, but who makes them die, because they lack this necessary hormone in their bodies. They deserve to be regarded as fish on the chopping board. Killed at will by me."

"Every one of my little friends is making crazy money because of insulin. My company alone has an annual income of 3 billion US dollars."

"Hey hey..." Thinking of the beauty, Xue Shen couldn't help but smirk while drooling.

"Wake up! You're not Lilly, you're just an ordinary migrant worker, and you'd better pray that you don't get diabetes when you get old."

Gu Xian glanced at him angrily, and reminded him kindly.

Xue Shen shook his head, wanting to pour out all those glittering and beautiful fantasies.

Substituting himself into a capitalist, he immediately realized the kind of enthusiasm for money, which can make people lose their minds instantly.

He couldn't take it just thinking about it, let alone earning so much money.

After he regained his composure completely, he smiled wryly and said, "It's so dangerous, I almost lost my mind, and now I want to scold those profiteers even more."

Gu Xian covered his forehead and said with a speechless expression: "Actually, although what you said makes sense, it's not the case at all."

"I can understand a proletarian's envy and hatred for capitalists, but we are all technicians, so we have to interpret it from a technical perspective."

"The things you mentioned, such as patent barriers, drug upgrades, and revolving doors, are all very common. As long as they are in the same country and change industries, they will still happen."

"But that doesn't explain why Bayer failed to monopolize aspirin, but the Big Three were able to monopolize insulin."

"Oh, according to what you said, what unique skill did they rely on to achieve the monopoly?" Xue Shen asked with interest.

Gu Xian opened his mouth slowly and said, "This is a long story, don't worry, just listen to me slowly."

"Insulin is now the third generation from discovery, extraction, to clinical practice."

"The first generation of the earliest insulin came from animals, and it was also the first commercialized bovine insulin injection, which was launched by Eli Lilly and Company."

"Because animal insulin is a foreign protein for humans, it is easy to trigger an immune response, so it has great defects. It is the kind that can be used, but the effect is very poor."

"So scientists turned their attention to human insulin. At first they extracted insulin from the pancreas of the corpse, and then chemically synthesized human insulin through amino acids, but they were still unable to achieve mass production."

The corner of Xiao Lan's mouth twitched, and she couldn't help showing a disgusted expression: "Eh... it's so disgusting to extract insulin from a corpse."

Gu Xian said calmly: "It's normal, surgery is done with corpses at the beginning."

"In fact, there are tomb robbers in ancient and modern China and abroad, but the West opposes heavy burials, and simple funerals are popular, so tomb robbers steal corpses, and mummies are their favorite. Europeans in the Middle Ages regarded mummies as a kind of tonic. Turn it into powder and take it as medicine."

"Mummy powder also has special tastes in the way of eating, some with honey, some with red wine, and some with syrup. At that time, when people met and communicated, just like we eat tofu brain now, they would ask each other, do you eat mummy? Salty or sweet."

Speaking of this, he also laughed himself: "Ahem, anyway, in ancient times, tomb robbers in the West were very focused on stealing corpses. On the one hand, they stole mummies from abroad, first used them as medicine, and then made them into paints. In short, they were quite exhausted. Its use."

"On the other hand, they also steal corpses in China and sell them to medical schools for anatomical research, so they are still very different from Huaxia's touch gold captains."

"In short, mummies are widely used in the West, so you can see so many exhibits in museums. It is very common for them to extract insulin from the human body."

"However, due to the material and craftsmanship, it is still impossible to break through the bottleneck of mass production, so we can only explore in other directions."

"In 1981, scientists finally used Escherichia coli to link amino acids into human insulin, and produced the second-generation insulin, also known as recombinant human insulin, which also contributed to the birth of genetic engineering technology."

"Second-generation insulin also has shortcomings, that is, the time of action after injection is limited, and it is difficult for patients to keep blood sugar in a stable state."

"Because diabetic patients often have high blood sugar after meals and need to control blood sugar, they all inject insulin before meals. In this way, when insulin is at its peak, it is already night and it is easy to cause hypoglycemia. There are significant risks to health."

"Think about it, if you are Eli Lilly, you don't want the insulin sold by the company. After the patient is injected, hypoglycemia occurs at night, and then he is unconscious and sent to the hospital for emergency treatment."

Xue Shen nodded and said, "Natural human insulin does have this problem. If it were me, I would definitely try my best to solve this problem."

Gu Xian snapped his fingers and agreed, "That's right, Eli Lilly thinks so too."

"They once again used genetic engineering technology to modify the natural human insulin molecule, changing and replacing individual amino acids, or locally modifying them, and developed insulin analogs."

"This is third-generation insulin."

"Currently, the third-generation insulins are widely used, and the number has increased to six. Each insulin has different changes in the sequence and structure of human insulin."

"These 6 insulins include 3 rapid-acting insulins, 2 long-acting insulins and 1 premixed insulin."

"The fast-acting insulins are divided into insulin aspart, insulin lispro and insulin glulisine. The long-acting insulins are divided into insulin glargine and insulin detemir."

"Of course, the Big Three didn't stop there. They developed the fourth-generation insulin, an ultra-long-acting insulin degludec that can stably lower blood sugar."

"In other words, insulin is like a door to blood sugar. There is a dedicated gatekeeper in this door in normal people, who can release appropriate insulin according to blood sugar content and precisely control the body's glycogen metabolism."

"Diabetics have no gatekeepers, and the gate is always open. Glucose flows through the gate unimpeded. Only by injecting insulin can the gate be installed and locked."

"The first-generation insulin is like a wooden fence, very crude, with air leaks everywhere, and its effect is limited."

"Second-generation insulin is like an iron door, which can be closed tightly, but it is often closed for too long, and it is too late, and the patient is closed out of order."

"The third-generation insulin is like an iron door with a lock. You can use several keys to open the door, and it finally works."

"As for the fourth-generation insulin, it is very powerful. It is equipped with a smart door lock, which can automatically open and close the door through face recognition, fingerprint recognition, password lock and other methods."

"So, speaking of which, what do you think will be the unique skills of the Big Three?"

Xue Shen opened his mouth wide, and said in surprise: "No way, you have been talking for a long time, do you want me to sum it up?"

He glanced at Xiao Lan, and murmured: "Then leave this job to your female assistant."

Xiao Lan listened very carefully, and showed a thoughtful expression after listening.

"I think I understand Director Gu's meaning. In fact, the unique skill of the Big Three is very simple. It is to upgrade the technology, continuously improve the defects of existing drugs, and make up for the shortcomings so that they can better meet the needs of patients."

"This is not a simple patent upgrade of the production process, but a new drug has been developed."

"If Lilly is complacent, has been holding on to the second-generation insulin, and does not want to make progress, then when the latecomer develops the third-generation insulin, it will be pulled from the throne, completely lose its monopoly position, and even disappear in the long river of history. middle."

"Those pharmaceutical giants with a history of hundreds of years have been advancing bravely in technology to survive until now."

"Having the first-mover advantage and being able to maintain such momentum can we maintain a monopoly position."

"I believe that in time, they will develop the fifth, sixth, or even countless generations of insulin."

Xue Shen interrupted her and said firmly: "They will not have another chance. The fifth generation of oral insulin will belong to us."

"In fact, there is another point you didn't mention. Why insulin can't be as cheap and popular as aspirin is because it can only be injected and taken orally."

"When oral insulin comes out, sooner or later it will become the fourth classic drug after penicillin, aspirin and diazepam."

"The advantage of oral insulin is that it is more convenient and more stable than insulin injections. The current insulin is only valid for 28 days once it leaves the refrigerator, but oral insulin has a validity period of at least two months."

"The nanoparticles, coatings, and absorption enhancers we use are not expensive, and are definitely cheaper than insulin pens, so the cost is estimated to be similar to the current price of insulin, and it will not cause too much burden on patients."

"By the time it enters human clinical trials, it will shock the world."

Xiao Lan continued: "It will also benefit all mankind."

"Papa papa!" Gu Xian applauded enthusiastically: "You are all right, so in order to save the world and all mankind, hurry up and work."

"I have to study which insulin analogue to use, the effect will be better, and at the same time get the genetic engineering technology in mass production as soon as possible."

He turned around and walked towards the door of the laboratory: "As for the animal experiment, Xue Shen, I will leave it to you."

*****

Next, after a period of rat experiments, oral insulin achieved an excellent effect of continuously reducing blood sugar by up to 60%, which is very exciting.

This shows that oral insulin has been thoroughly developed and can go to the next step.

However, at the beginning of the rat test, because the second-generation natural insulin was used, although the blood sugar was lowered quickly, the ability to stabilize blood sugar was insufficient.

That's good enough for animal experiments, but not for the much more complex human body.

So, after some discussion, the two decided to improve the insulin molecules loaded on the nanoparticles and mix and match long-acting insulin and fast-acting insulin.

Rapid-acting insulin is generally used as a meal supplement, because after a patient consumes a large amount of carbohydrates, the blood sugar concentration will soar, and at this time rapid-acting insulin is needed to quickly lower blood sugar.

Long-acting insulin generally has a longer action time and can last for more than 24 hours, so it is often used in basal insulin therapy.

According to their plan, the second layer of nanoparticles will carry fast-acting insulin molecules so that they can enter the liver and be released quickly to lower blood sugar after meals.

The long-acting insulin wrapped in the inner layer of nanoparticles will be released slowly as the nanoparticles decompose, maintaining a long-term effect and stabilizing blood sugar.

In this way, the two-pronged approach can maintain the patient's blood sugar level at an ideal level within 24 hours.

This improvement program has received strong support from the company.

The whole team put their heart and soul into it, and after a period of time-consuming research, the fifth-generation oral insulin that can be used in human clinical trials was finally successfully developed.

This epoch-making breakthrough solved the centuries-old problem that insulin cannot be taken orally.

After Wei Kang heard the news, he was extremely excited.

"Great, it will enter the first phase of clinical trials immediately."

"I want to see human clinical results sooner."

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