Chapter 030: Negotiations for the Pharmaceutical Factory Acquisition

In October 1928, Itagaki Seishiro summoned his old partner from their days in Wuhan, Kanji Ishiwara. The two Kanto Army rogues began to study the feasibility of militarily occupying Manchuria.

Chen Jiehua was in no state to worry about this now. After requesting leave from his mentor and boss, Itagaki Seishiro, he arranged Zhou Yongsu’s work, divided the remaining penicillin in his private store, and hid it in two safehouses in the city of Lushun. Then, without delay, he boarded a ship bound for America!

The call from America was not to announce the success of the sulfa drug research, but to report trouble at the pharmaceutical plant.

For a long time, penicillin had been secretly produced and stored, yet never released for sale. The stockpiles in the clandestine warehouse kept growing, and staff in the secret laboratory often smuggled penicillin out for friends and family. Gradually, people in the western regions discovered its miraculous effects in small circles.

Consequently, the sharp-nosed executives at Pfizer and Davis-Parker nearly simultaneously set their sights on Chen Jiehua’s Western Heart Pharmaceutical Factory and its secret laboratory.

Upon receiving the call, Chen Jiehua had no choice but to inform George Lucas to first disband the sulfa drug research team. Gerhard Domagk, along with his research data and any willing scientists, was to secretly leave the lab and return to Germany!

The second step was to halt penicillin production and keep the entire team under what might gently be called “protective custody,” waiting for Chen Jiehua’s arrival to negotiate with the two companies.

Chen Jiehua’s thinking was clear: it was the penicillin team that had been exposed for now. Whether the sulfa team had also leaked anything could not be confirmed from across the ocean, so disbanding them and sending all the data back with the original owner was the best he could do. As for whether Domagk could keep the results safe, that was up to fate.

In truth, history’s power to self-correct was formidable! Chen Jiehua could only accept it. As it happened, in the real timeline, penicillin was discovered in 1928, and it was Pfizer that ultimately acquired the secret and began production—propelling the company’s meteoric rise.

During World War II, Pfizer supplied penicillin to the U.S. military at low cost. By the later stages of the war, nearly every Allied soldier carried a vial of penicillin as a lifesaver.

Yet, at that time in Republican China, penicillin fetched prices equal to its weight in gold! Therefore, Chen Jiehua set his bottom line: even if he couldn’t keep the factory, he must secure the agency or sales rights for penicillin in Republican China and Japan!

The journey from Lushun to Kobe, Japan, then onward to San Francisco, took a full twenty-one days! Traveling in the Republican era was truly grueling.

Fortunately, Chen Jiehua brought Russian and German language books, alternating between them to pass the time at sea. Otherwise, boredom over such a long journey might have driven him overboard—there were no smartphones to distract oneself in those days!

Upon arrival, Chen Jiehua left the ship, performed a simple disguise in the restroom as was his habit, then returned to his secret laboratory at the pharmaceutical plant and notified George Lucas to arrange negotiations with the two companies.

In the first round, both companies sent only middle managers, each accompanied by a retinue of locals. Their offers were laughably inadequate, not even covering the cost of building a factory; clearly, they wanted to test the owner’s strength. The accumulation of primitive capital was always a bloody business.

From insiders at the plant, the two companies had learned that the director was of East Asian appearance—fluent in standard English, but likely Japanese or Chinese, since the boss was rarely present.

But in that era, regardless of nationality, an East Asian face had little in the way of rights in America. That was precisely why Chen Jiehua had always intended to negotiate with the companies. He could not remain in America long-term, and as an Easterner, his footing was too weak to keep the plant. Only through negotiation could he secure exclusive distribution or agency rights for himself.

There was no point in resisting head-on; the plant was never his focus. He already had penicillin—everything else was just icing on the cake.

He simply refused to let the Americans walk away with the spoils for nothing!

Since they wanted to test his mettle, he would show them just what he was capable of. When it came time for further negotiation, he would raise his price.

Chen Jiehua first targeted William H. Parker, the current leader of Davis-Parker. He discreetly followed Parker home, slipped into his bedroom while Parker was showering, and dropped an aspirin tablet into Parker’s water glass, placing the bottle next to it.

As a second step, Chen Jiehua used Parker’s own pen and paper to write a single line, then fastened it with a scalpel blade to the headboard.

When Parker emerged from his shower, the first thing he saw was the note pinned to his bed: "Life can be very long, or it can be very short."

“Oh! My God!” Parker exclaimed. It hadn’t been there before he showered!

Still shaken, Parker then noticed the pill bottle on his desk.

William H. Parker understood at once—he was dealing with a dangerous adversary.

He carefully removed the strange blade and called his secretary, arranging to meet the mysterious owner of Western Heart Pharmaceutical in person the next day.

A similar scene played out in the home of John Anderson, the head of Pfizer.

That night, George Lucas called.

“Boss! You’re amazing! Both companies called and want to schedule a new round of negotiations tomorrow!”

“That saves trouble. Have them both come at once—we’ll finish this in a single meeting.”

On October 23, 1928, in sunlit San Francisco, the air was right for negotiation and alliance.

John Anderson of Pfizer, William H. Parker of Davis-Parker, and Chen Jiehua of Western Heart Pharmaceutical sat down together. After several rounds of discussion, they reached a preliminary agreement: a new company would be formed to handle the production and sales of penicillin.

Chen Jiehua laid out his terms: "All my assets here—factory, laboratory, research staff, the penicillin formula, and the production process—will be exchanged for just seven percent of the new company’s shares, non-dilutable. That is, no matter how the company expands or how many new shareholders are added, my seven percent remains seven percent!"

"These seven percent shares can be transferred or traded at any time, so long as the original certificate, my signature, and my token are present."

"My only additional condition is that I retain the sales rights for penicillin in Japan and China."

Though he was providing virtually everything necessary for penicillin production, Chen Jiehua asked for only seven percent of the new company's stock—a non-dilutable share. Even so, it seemed an astonishing bargain.

The two American executives thought, Why didn’t you say so earlier? If you’d spoken up, we could have avoided all the previous misunderstandings!

As for the sales rights in China and Japan, they hardly considered it a concession at all.

Seizing the momentum, the three parties completed the necessary formalities for founding the new company and dividing the shares, all witnessed by lawyers and a notary office (whether such an institution existed at the time, the author has not checked—let’s just assume it did; if not, corrections are welcome).