Chapter 95: The Pharmaceutical Factory

Strictly speaking, apart from a small amount of traditional Chinese medicine preparations made by Liu San using local materials, most of the drugs consumed by Bairen General Hospital still came from their inventory, including saline for intravenous infusions.

The drug reserve was dwindling with every use, and even with conservation, it would eventually run out. Without an adequate supply of basic drugs, the Ministry of Health could never expand its medical services on a large scale. With too few patients, both doctors and nurses had very few opportunities to practice. All of this depended on the future production of the pharmaceutical factory.

Shi Niaoren said, “As for long-term training, we still need to start with the basics, such as physiology, anatomy, botany, zoology, and Western pharmacology, to create a theoretical framework. The goal is to establish a preliminary, non-TCM biological and medical system. In addition to short-term crash courses, we must also conduct formal education simultaneously. The next step will be to recruit medical and pharmaceutical students from among the students who have completed literacy training and provide them with a more formal education. It may take ten years to teach these people, but they will be our future successors. To recruit students, we need a basic theoretical framework, otherwise, how will they know what they are doing? Everyone should hurry up and prepare a draft of the teaching plan.”

He Ma said, “So, the first step is to support the establishment of the education department and the education system. But it seems our education system is just getting started. Also, isn’t the cultural level of the literacy students too low? To study medicine, in China, you need at least a high school diploma. In the United States, you have to complete three years of science at a university first.”

“Can’t we recruit some medical interns from among the transmigrators?” Liu San said.

“Good idea!” Shi Niaoren suddenly discovered a new continent. The transmigrators had at least a high school level of education; studying medicine should not be a big problem.

“Studying medicine is a tedious and boring thing. Will this group of people be interested?” Lan Yangyang expressed his doubts, recalling the miserable experience of memorizing endless books during his medical school days.

“We can start with the girls. Most of them are not in critical positions, and women are emotionally rich. They might be interested in things like saving lives and helping the wounded.”

Ai Beibei said, “That’s possible. Last time, a girl came to ask me how to become a nurse.”

He Ma quickly said, “It’s a waste to be a nurse. Let her be a doctor.”

“By the way, what about that Hu Yicheng? He’s being wasted in the Ministry of Agriculture’s biological laboratory—a molecular biology major, tsk tsk. We should ask for him. He can help us make medicine.”

“Good. Let’s make a list first, see how many people are suitable, and we’ll focus on persuading them. We can also post a public recruitment ad in the Lingao Times for interested people.” Shi Niaoren tapped his notebook with a pen. “By the way, the recruitment poster should have a sexy photo of a nurse. We should check the AV library’s general catalog at the Grand Library to see if there are any such films. We can have an internal study session first…”

Ai Beibei smiled. “I won’t be participating in this study session. Director, I request a leave of absence.”

“Alright, alright,” Shi Niaoren coughed, feeling he had misspoken and damaged his authority. “Continue, continue—”

Ai Beibei said, “The educational level of the natives is indeed a bit low. I suggest we can start with basic anatomy. Didn’t modern medicine begin with the Renaissance’s interest in the human body’s structure? And anatomy is a visual education. Students see what they see, which enhances persuasiveness. After establishing a basic understanding of human structure, it will be easier to understand pathology and other subjects.”

He Ma nodded. “This is still a crash course. We can always ‘re-educate’ them later! Besides, we’ll live to see the first batch of native high school graduates. Another point is to break the ancient superstitions that reject the modern Western medical system. This is actually not difficult to popularize. We can refer to the methods used by missionaries in China in the past, widely carrying out activities like civilian clinics and simple outpatient services, providing medical care and medicine to the common people. Once the people see the effects, it will be easy to promote the concept of modern medicine.”

“Speaking of this issue, it again involves the problem of drugs, consumables, and equipment,” Shi Niaoren sighed.

“Including surgery, which is also very difficult for us to perform now,” He Ma said. “We don’t have a qualified anesthetist. I can probably fill in, but it’s not a long-term solution. Also, our anesthetic drugs are running low. We need to find substitutes.”

Drugs and various medical consumables depended on the achievements of the chemical department and required too much specialized equipment, special materials, including rubber, corrosion-resistant products, and various catalysts and reagents. Many catalysts were proprietary and strictly confidential.

“We can start experimenting with antibiotics,” Zhao Yanmei said. “I’ll try to cultivate kasugamycin, oxytetracycline, and chlortetracycline—the simple production of these antibiotics is relatively easy. After production, we’ll first use them on the Ministry of Agriculture’s animals. If they are safe, we’ll then conduct clinical trials on humans.”

“A pharmaceutical factory needs a lot of chemicals. I doubt the chemical department can start mass production anytime soon, except for coal tar refining. Some simple or important drugs will have to be accumulated slowly in the laboratory. APC can still be made with relatively primitive methods. For now, it’s enough to be able to treat common diseases and battle wounds, and to test for common pathogens, plus making some plans and rules. We can’t do much else at the moment,” Shi Niaoren was rather pessimistic about this issue.

Liu San, seeing that they had almost finished talking, finally spoke up. “There is also the development and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine,” he paused for a moment. “I know many people have reservations about traditional Chinese medicine. However, there are many effective empirical formulas in TCM. The preparation of Chinese medicine is also relatively convenient. The health department should pay attention to this.”

“I strongly agree with this,” Shi Niaoren said. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about the pharmaceutical factory for a long time. Chinese patent medicine is also a key area of pharmaceutical production.”

“Yes, we should try to replicate some of the effective patent medicines, like the Zhuge Xingjun San. It’s a pity that the formula for Yunnan Baiyao is a secret,” Liu San said with great regret.

“Did Yunnan Baiyao exist in the Ming Dynasty?”

“No, it only appeared in 1902,” Liu San shook his head. “Most of the effective Chinese patent medicines we know of were finalized in their formulation and processing during the Qing Dynasty. Perhaps we can buy Pien Tze Huang in Fujian.”

“That’s a good one,” He Ma said. “It’s a holy medicine for anti-inflammatory and antibacterial purposes in Chinese medicine.”

“The effect is indeed good. People in Chinese medicine say it was a secret formula from the Ming court that later spread to Fujian. It should exist by now. We can ask about it when we send people to Fujian for procurement. If we find out where it’s made, we can just kidnap the people.”

“We don’t have to just focus on the Chinese patent medicines we know of,” Liu San said. “There must have been effective ones in the Ming Dynasty that we just don’t know about. It would be best to contact the foreign affairs and intelligence departments and use their connections to collect some Chinese patent medicines. We can test them in clinical trials to see how effective they are, and maybe even find ways to improve them.”

“Yes, yes,” Shi Niaoren nodded in agreement.

“Also,” Liu San, seeing the director’s support for his words, became more talkative, “we need to ensure our supply of Chinese medicinal materials. The production of our own Chinese patent medicines depends on the supply of raw materials. It seems there is only one pharmacy in Lingao County, and I’ve been there: the variety is not complete. I asked around: most of the medicinal materials they sell, apart from a small amount produced locally, are imported from Qiongshan and Leizhou. The pharmacies here are too small; they haven’t even been to the major medicinal markets.”

Ai Beibei asked, “Didn’t you set up a medicinal herb garden at the farm?”

“It’s far from enough,” Liu San said. “There are two thousand common Chinese medicinal materials in the medicinal markets alone, and many of them require special processing. Also, precious medicines like musk, bezoar, and rhino horn are hard to buy outside of the medicinal markets.”

“Are you thinking of going to the medicinal markets to buy medicinal materials?”

“Yes!” Liu San nodded. “Whether I go myself or send someone, it’s best to buy and store some precious medicinal materials as soon as possible. It’s 1629 now, probably a relatively peaceful time in the late Ming Dynasty. As the world becomes more chaotic in the future, the trade of medicinal materials may be interrupted.”

“Alright, I’ll coordinate this matter. I’ll try to come up with a plan as soon as possible.”

At the meeting, the establishment of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Factory was formally announced. This factory was a joint venture between the Agricultural Committee and the Ministry of Health, so the factory director’s position was relatively high. Shi Niaoren and Wu Nanhai served as the director and deputy director, respectively. The executive director was Zhao Yanmei from the Ministry of Health, and the Agricultural Committee appointed Huang Dashan as the executive deputy director. Both of them happened to be experts in microbiology.

The pharmaceutical factory was located on the riverbank not far from the farm. There was a lot of wasteland here, and they could make use of the farm’s well-developed infrastructure. Moreover, most of the transmigrators’ biological talents were concentrated at the farm, so they could share resources at any time.

The entire pharmaceutical factory was regarded as a key department of the transmigrator group and enjoyed the highest priority in infrastructure construction. To ensure a constant temperature in some of the factory’s production and research laboratories, the first air conditioning system in Bairen City was installed at the pharmaceutical factory.

This was the ground-source air conditioning system that Li Xiaolv had proposed. First, they drilled more than ten meters deep into the ground to utilize the constant temperature of the earth. Water was used as a heat exchange medium, circulating between the ground and the building to achieve warmth in winter and coolness in summer. In winter, it drew heat from the ground, and in summer, it released heat into the ground.

The principle was simple, but the entire system was very luxurious. Not only did they have to dig a well over ten meters deep, but they also had to manufacture high-efficiency heat exchangers made of brass. The amount of copper alone made the Planning Committee’s heart ache for a long time.

But the pharmaceutical factory was one of the ten key projects of the “First Five-Year Plan,” a project that Ma Qianzhu said had to be launched even if they had to “pawn their pants.” Fortunately, this amount of copper was not enough to make Ma Qianzhu pawn his pants, it only caused protests from the electricity and communications departments, whose resources were being squeezed.

This project was launched in full swing. The machinery factory began to manufacture the related pipes and equipment according to the drawings.