Chapter 68: Filling The Last Missing Piece
Fritz Haber at the beginning of 1915 already had a very high status in the industry.
He was one of the few successful industrialists and scientists who could be counted in the entire Germania Empire.
Today, he was only making time to meet Lelouch out of consideration for the Grand Duke of Baden’s request, and had no intention of haggling with Lelouch over some details.
So after hearing Lelouch’s conditions, his first reaction was very natural: “Those details, you can discuss with the specific people later. I’m very busy. You say you want to establish an additional company specifically for the follow-up application development of sulfonamide. I don’t think that’s very necessary.
Aren’t you just wanting to use those resources to take a small share of the profits in this new company? We can completely settle the profits in another way. His Highness the Grand Duke of Baden can check the accounts. We won’t tamper with these small amounts of money.”
Lelouch immediately interrupted him: “No, no, no, you’ve misunderstood. We’re not trying to take ‘a small portion of the profits’ from this new company. We want absolute control over this new company. IG Farben can only hold a small portion of equity and profits in this new company—but we will ensure IG Farben’s interests through other means, especially directly ensuring the interests of IG Farben as the parent company itself.”
The plan Lelouch proposed was truly shocking, to the point that even Fritz Haber was piqued with interest.
This little trick of “successfully attracting the attention of the domineering CEO” had long been overused in later generations, but in 1915 Germania, given that peers had previously been relatively honest and rigorous, an outlier like Lelouch could gain considerable attention-grabbing advantage.
Haber was almost amused: “I didn’t hear wrong, did I? You expect to hold the majority stake in this new company? How much money are you prepared to invest in the new company, and how exactly to allocate production and profits? I’ll give you 3 minutes to explain the key points clearly. If you can’t convince me, I’ll have to reply to the Grand Duke of Baden honestly.”
Lelouch finally seized the opportunity and presented the core plan he had thought about for a long time on the road: “In the future, the production of the sulfonamide compound itself will still remain entirely within IG Farben.
Moreover, the relevant imperial departments will ensure that even if IG Farben does not apply for a patent, or withdraws and reapplies each time just before the public disclosure period, the Empire can use administrative power to ensure that only IG Farben can produce sulfonamide domestically, and production by other companies would be illegal.
Moreover, the Empire will also try its best in the intelligence field to keep the follow-up application methods of sulfonamide secret for as long as possible—you should know that applying for a patent during wartime itself isn’t much help, because applying for a patent means disclosing technical details. Once foreigners learn it, they won’t respect your laws; they’ll just copy it casually.
So, you need the Empire’s ‘exclusive extra-legal authorization’ to use the state apparatus to ensure that the production methods and uses of this sulfonamide compound can be kept as exclusive technical secrets for as long as possible. This kind of exclusive national protection isn’t easy; it requires a lot of connections and greasing palms. If your company appears too greedy in eating alone, it might backfire in the future.”
Lelouch first pointed out the limitations of legal protection during wartime to the other party, reminding him that this matter runs deep and requires coordinating a lot of resources. It wasn’t possible for him to only calculate the economic account; he should soften his stance when seeing good results and take them.
Haber was finally somewhat moved. He wasn’t ignorant of these big talks; he had just subconsciously been unwilling to think about the worst-case scenario at first.
In the war era, many things had to be handled specially. If the final product indeed had unique effects and was valued by the military.
Haber had just thought the other party was exaggerating because he himself didn’t know how great the future effects of sulfonamide could be.
“Then tell me your specific vision.” Haber finally threw out the first olive branch.
Lelouch quickly struck while the iron was hot: “I have a plan here that has already been discussed with the Grand Duke of Baden and Crown Prince Rupprecht. Only the final allocation ratios and investment models, along with some details, need to be finalized.
According to this plan, after IG Farben starts the production line to mass-produce sulfonamide, it can calculate a base price based on the production cost of the raw material drug. The newly established company is willing to procure the entire output from IG Farben at 300% of the base price. IG Farben is also not allowed to sell sulfonamide to other customers, which is equivalent to exclusive distribution at 200% profit, with a gross profit margin of 66.7%.”
For a drug with a production cost of 1 mark, the downstream company pays 3 marks to procure it. IG Farben doesn’t need to worry about sales; it just needs to focus on production.
However, this price obviously couldn’t satisfy Haber. Those who have done chemical pharmaceuticals know that in later generations, the markup from raw material drug to final retail price is commonly twenty or thirty times, because the cost of chemical synthesis is really too low.
If calculated by chemical manufacturing cost, in later generations, a single aspirin or ibuprofen only costs two or three cents, but pharmacies sell it for at least sixty or seventy cents, which is more than thirty times.
Of course, packaging and retail also have costs. The gross margin truly left for raw material drug manufacturers is generally only about thirty percent（ if there is no patent protection and full competition from generics）
But in any case, after comprehensive calculation, giving only a 200% premium over manufacturing cost for an exclusive raw material drug, a big shot like Haber definitely wouldn’t accept it.
After a round of haggling, both sides finally agreed to double the raw material drug selling price again, selling at 600% of the manufacturing cost, leaving the chemical factory with 500% of manufacturing cost as profit, gross profit margin 83.3%.
And the newly established company, after obtaining the raw material drug, actually still needs secondary processing. The raw material drug is just in powder or liquid form and cannot be eaten directly. The traditional practice is generally to directly add excipients and press into tablets, or coat with sugar coating.
Capsule technology was actually already developed across the ocean in the Ugly Country in the early 20th century, but the patent protection period hasn’t expired yet.
However, in the war era, none of that mattered, and Germania scientists could also improve and technically circumvent based on the Ugly Country’s capsule technology.
Lelouch’s meaning was this: “Based on some preliminary tests I’ve done through other channels before, sulfonamide has too much liver and kidney metabolic toxicity. Directly pressing it into tablets and eating it has a small probability of liver failure and a higher probability of kidney failure.
So we need certain ‘sustained-release technology’ to add the drug to other excipients such as beeswax or something else. The outermost capsule shell material also needs optimization so that the drug isn’t completely digested in the stomach, and is best slowly released after entering the intestine. This way, we can avoid toxicity peaks and not put too much pressure on the liver and kidney.
These technologies are all ones that your IG Farben currently doesn’t have. But I’m very generous and willing to provide you with this experimental idea. I hope to establish a new finished drug factory funded by me, the Baria Royal Family, and the Baden Royal Family, and be responsible for the research and development of ‘sustained-release technology’. IG Farben can send some engineers and researchers to the new company to handle the specific experimental implementation of the related technologies, contributing with technology for equity. And as I said, the subsequent clinical trials will get fast-tracked special approval, which also requires people from the Grand Duke of Baden to approve. You’re definitely not losing out.”
Hearing Lelouch speak to the details, Haber discovered that he understood some chemical principles—at least the conceptual level was very advanced—and couldn’t help but look at him more highly.
This young man’s ability to coordinate all parties was indeed quite good.
Although IG Farben could go to great lengths to bypass him and figure out solutions themselves, perhaps getting more profits… but why bother? If you find someone else, they aren’t prepared and have no plan in their heads; you’d have to steal and reverse-engineer it. In the war era, who can afford such delays? Better to go with the ready-made option.
Moreover, they have backing connections. If you really steal their ideas and start anew, offending people, then the deal is off.
After a round of negotiations, the final plan was this:
The new finished drug company, with total share capital valued at 4 million marks, will be responsible for procuring raw material drug from IG Farben at 600% of manufacturing cost price and producing sustained-release finished drugs.
Lelouch personally invests 2.2 million marks, holding 55% stake. The Baden Royal Family and Baria Royal Family each invest 400,000 marks, holding 10% each, totaling 3 million marks as the cash investment for this new company. Any future relations that need coordinating, Lelouch will handle from his 55%.
IG Farben can send a professional manager from the family to manage daily research and production, but on major decisions, must obey Lelouch and the decisions of the state apparatus behind him.
And IG Farben provides a batch of research personnel and experimental equipment to immediately start research and development of “sustained-release drugs,” and also improves the capsule technology developed by the Ugly Country people a few years ago. This portion of experimental equipment and technical strength is valued at 1 million marks, invested in the new company for 25% stake.
As for the factory buildings, equipment, and other hardware needed for the new company’s production and operations, they can also be purchased from IG Farben’s parent company using the previous 3 million marks in cash investment. Anyway, these chemical groups already have very complete related equipment, even surplus.
Originally in history, sulfonamide was put into practical use first by inventing “Prontosil” in 1932, a prodrug that naturally reacts in the intestine and stomach to release sulfonamide.
Whereas modern “sustained-release capsule technology” only appeared in 1950. Using sustained-release capsules to solve the bottleneck of “not yet developing Prontosil” is instead not very realistic. Because modern sustained-release capsules require many polymer materials as sustained-release excipients.
And in 1915, there were no related plastics or polymer material technologies at all.
However, now Lelouch can also find ways to make some monkey-version substitutes.
Anyway, the first step idea of “sustained-release” is to prevent the drug from being completely dissolved by stomach acid in the stomach, best to hold out until the intestine to dissolve, so making the capsule a bit thicker is achievable.
After entering the intestine, the capsule has already dissolved completely, but we still hope the drug inside releases slowly. At this point, we need something that can mix with the drug powder and digests slowly. Without polymer materials, we can consider beeswax plus some other things, altogether manufactured into a hard drug paste that best takes several hours to dissolve completely in the intestine, so the drug powder can also be absorbed slowly without overwhelming liver and kidney metabolic pressure all at once.
The specific details still need to be researched and tested slowly anyway.
And this detail is also key to Lelouch ensuring the technical barrier in the future—even if after one or two years of war, the enemy discovers that the German Army used sulfonamide drugs to save wounded soldiers, and then they also manufacture sulfonamide.
But as long as they don’t have the sustained-release drug idea, and directly eat it, it will be absorbed completely in a few minutes, so the enemy’s wounded soldiers will mostly also suffer liver and kidney failure.
Sulfonamide itself is easy to detect in assays, but those miscellaneous natural excipients for sustained-release are not easy to detect in assays.
Of course, using natural biological product excipients, compared to pure polymer sustained-release excipients, also has a drawback: the shelf life of the final finished drug will be very unstable—but this doesn’t matter much in the war era. With so many wounded soldiers during wartime, sulfonamide is produced as much as it is consumed. There’s no situation of storing it for years until it spoils.
……
It took a week back and forth to handle the preparation and construction of IG Farben’s sulfonamide drug factory, and also obtained the first batch of raw material drug for parallel animal experiments.
During this time, Adidas’s parachutes and paratrooper-specific bandoliers were also being produced non-stop, and batches were sent to the Aachen training base as soon as they came off production for paratroopers to train with.
With less than a week left until the paratrooper offensive preparations were complete,
Lelouch felt that there was nothing in Frankfurt that needed his attention anymore, so he set off on the return journey, preparing to go back to the front line to organize the surprise attack overall.
On the return trip, he chose a different route from the outbound one. Coming, he went straight from Armantieres to Frankfurt; returning, he would make a detour to Antwerp.
The reason for going to Antwerp was, of course, because Vice Admiral Hipper of the Baria Faction, and his several battlecruisers, were at Antwerp Port.
Lelouch always plans one step ahead and sees three steps when fighting. Since the layout had reached the level of “navy-army coordinated interception,” it definitely wouldn’t do to only let coastal defense batteries and railway guns contribute.
To truly cut off the enemy’s “sea route retreat” backup plan at the root, it had to be the Germania fleet!
Only the fleet could deliver the true finishing blow and kill shot, while coastal defense guns and railway guns, limited by operational range, could only be used to weaken the enemy’s sea reinforcements.
So the last stop before returning to the front line to start fighting had to be discussing navy-army coordination with Hipper.
Two months ago, after the Ostend naval battle, Hipper had then “faked injury to show weakness,” hiding in Antwerp, externally claiming only that “the four battlecruisers were all heavily damaged by Betty in the artillery battle and withdrew to Antwerp for difficult repairs,” and deliberately sent fake telegrams to the Naval Ministry asking them to find ways to expand Antwerp’s shipyard and provide major repair capabilities. In reality, it was to let the Britannians intercept these telegram messages and decipher them to mislead them.
Moreover, later, Hipper’s acting was indeed exquisite and cooperative. Since pretending to be “severely injured and unable to move,” from early November until now in early February, a full three months, he really didn’t budge, with no combat attempts whatsoever. Even if there were some opportunities to gain small advantages before, he deliberately didn’t take them, just to build up for a big one.
Now, these three months of showing weakness, faking injury, and lying low were finally time to collect the interest!
On February 8th, Lelouch arrived in Antwerp travel-worn and went straight to Hipper’s battlecruiser detachment temporary headquarters.
Vice Admiral Hipper had been waiting for him for a long time. As soon as Lelouch entered, Hipper was very enthusiastic toward this much younger friend who always brought him merit.
“You’ve finally come!”
