Super Genius DNA

There were two conditions under which He Jiankui’s human experiment could be excused. One was that he didn’t know the side effects of modifying CCR5 in an embryo, which was almost certain. CCR5 became famous for its role as the infection route of HIV, and there were already people who had natural mutations in CCR5. He Jiankui probably thought it was a relatively safe target as there were so many people born with that mutation. Plus, A-Bio was already treating AIDS through CCR5 manipulation, though it wasn’t in developing embryos.

The other condition was that the CCR5 blockers on the market didn’t work, meaning the other option for these genetically engineered babies was difficult.

‘I didn’t really know this either.’

Young-Joon opened the documents that Park Joo-Hyuk sent him in his office. There were a total of thirty-three documents related to the lawsuit.

This case was about the clinical trials of a treatment called Glaxoviroc, which was once sold by a Taiwanese pharmaceutical company called Atmox. It was believed that the HIV would not be transmitted from the mother to the fetus when this treatment was administered to the mother. The success rate was reported to be one hundred percent, but there were recent cases of failure.

Young-Joon slowly read through the documents, then called Park Joo-Hyuk as even Rosaline’s powers couldn’t interpret law terminology.

“This case is still in the Supreme Court. In the first trial, the court found Atmox negligent and ordered them to provide compensation for damages, but it was overturned in the court of appeals,” Park Joo-Hyuk explained.

“The concentration and the number of administrations of Glaxoviroc were different for this clinical trial, right?” Young-Joon asked.

Park Joo-Hyuk nodded.

“Originally, it’s supposed to be administered once a week starting from the fifth week of the pregnancy,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “But in that clinical case trial, Atmox developed a new way of administering Glaxoviroc, and they tested it on patients at a hospital owned by Atmox. Atmox claims that the patient’s consent was fully obtained and they understood everything.”

“It’s supposed to be given once every week, but they got consent and didn’t use it at all. Instead, they administered a ten-fold dose once every week for the last three weeks?”

“Well, Atmox is claiming that it was a properly conducted clinical trial. They predicted it would be successful, but it just happened to fail.”

Atmox was trying to change a drug that was traditionally administered continuously throughout the pregnancy to one that would only be administered near the delivery date. Young-Joon could understand this direction of research. The less number of administrations was always good for the patient as it meant fewer trips to the hospital and less chance of side effects. And a new drug always had a chance of failure. It was tragic that the new administration method of Glaxoviroc failed, but that wasn’t something that the pharmaceutical company should be blamed for.

“The question is whether the patient was aware of the old and safer administration method of Glaxoviroc,” Young-Joon said.

“Yeah, and that’s where the victim’s and Atmox’s statements differ. The victim says she wasn’t told anything, saying what kind of crazy mother would intentionally take a chance when her child’s life depended on it. Of course, Atmox says it was all explained.”

“Wasn’t there an informed consent form?”

“The consent form was signed by the patient, but it was filled with all kinds of medical jargon that she couldn’t understand. She says that when they explained it to her verbally, they didn’t mention that there were other ways to administer it.”

“A clinical trial that the subjects don’t understand is illegal,” Young-Joon said.

“In principle, yes, but their opponent is a pretty big pharmaceutical company and they are powerless citizens. Just making the case go onto the Supreme Court is going to make every day a living hell for the victim.”

“...”

Young-Joon turned on his computer. He typed “P” into the search bar. Then, the web address of a website he visited often popped up.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/]

It was a website called PubMed. It was run by the National Institute of Health. This website was a search engine for academic articles, and it had papers published from any journal around the world.

Young-Joon searched for Glaxoviroc on PubMed. If there was a new administration method, there must have been a paper published about it. He wanted to find out how much preclinical research they based this clinical trial on.

“Oh...”

Young-Joon’s hand came to a halt as he scrolled down to find the article. He found a paper published in a journal he had never seen before.

[A new method of administration of the CCR5 blocker Glaxoviroc may reduce the dose and the number of doses.]

[Corresponding author: He Jiankui]

“...”

Young-Joon pondered for a moment as he opened the paper.

‘He Jiankui.’

It could be a coincidence. He Jiankui was a scientist, not a businessman, and Young-Joon had never heard of him working for Atmox. But this paper was the result of research funded by Atmox. It didn’t quite seem like a coincidence that the people involved in the HIV and the CCR5 blocker scandal were the same people.

Young-Joon, who was tapping his chin, said to Park Joo-Hyuk, “I need you to check one more thing.”

“What is it?”

“How Doctor He Jiankui and Atmox are related.”

* * *

He Jiankui, who returned to Beijing, was being interrogated by the Chinese authorities.

“The government is in a tough position because of you, Doctor He Jiankui,” said the deputy minister of the Public Security Bureau.

“Haha, I’m sorry, but this is what science is like, Mr. Deputy Minister. For a car to run, fuel must inevitably be burned and sacrificed, right?”

“I heard that the baby is in poor health. If it dies, you’ll be criticized by the international community. And in that case, the Chinese government won’t be able to protect you.”

“I know that.”

“If you say we authorized an experiment like that, China becomes a place for inhumane human experiments that use our own people. We will deny any involvement, and the whole matter will be chalked up as your personal aberration and illegal research.”

“But the bureau does far worse things than me, right?”

Tap.

The deputy minister pressed on He Jiankui’s chin with his baton.

“Be careful of what you say.”

“Sir, it’s not something that will go away if I keep my mouth shut,” He Jiankui said. “I’ll tell you a story that happened recently. My friend wanted to publish a paper in Nature, but there was a problem.”

“What was it?”

“That paper was a collection of medical information on the postoperative status and recovery of patients who underwent organ transplant surgery in China. The editors of Nature are wondering if they should publish it even though the data is amazing. The reason is...” He Jiankui said. “Because they were unauthorized transplants from executed prisoners in China. There are a few people who are suspicious of that. Why don’t you just tell me?”

“...”

“Execution dates for death row inmates, including political prisoners and democracy activists, always seem to coincide with organ transplant surgeries for important people in China.”

“...Nonsense...”

“You do a demand survey and study the possibility of organ rejection in advance, and then you reserve an operating room in a hospital close to the execution site. Then, you cut open their stomachs as soon as you execute them, take their organs, and then deliver it fresh to the operating room? That’s the issue preventing the editors from publishing the paper.”

“...”

“Of course, it’s because the editors at Nature are idiots. What’s the crime in the data itself? My friend has nothing to do with that organ transplant, either. He was just tracking the health of the patients. We’ll be advancing medicine if we share that with academia, and the executed inmates will probably be glad since they were going to die anyway.”

“Who else knows about that?”

“Only a few people. They are hiding it well at Nature because a new paper is supposed to be secure. Of course, I heard about it because I am personally close with the author. But sooner or later, even the scientists at Science will hear about it, too. This industry is smaller than you think. Although, they will just be unconfirmed rumors,” He Jiankui said with a sly smile. “But I don’t care about ethics or anything like that. I’m satisfied with being able to do research and finding out new things. At your rank, you should know. So, is it true or not? I was so curious. If it is, what I did is child’s play.”

“...”

“If it’s true, can you give me some organs for research purposes?”

“What...!”

The deputy minister was shocked.

“I’m sure there are patients who aren’t a match, right? I’m sure there are spare organs from the inmates that aren’t in demand. I have some research I want to do.”

“Are you crazy?!” the deputy minister shouted. “We’re being really accommodating because you’re in the GSC. Don’t be arrogant! You’re here to be investigated for illegal funding and research!”

“I promise you that the baby will be healthy since it’s in the hands of a crazy smart scientist. If anyone criticizes the engineering, I can just say that it was the only way to stop HIV from being inherited. Glaxiviroc failed recently, too.”

“Glaxoviroc?”

“It’s a drug that stops HIV from being inherited. Well, some say it’s because of the difference in dosage, but who is going to dig into that?” He Jiankui said.

“...”

“The organ thing is a personal request, so please take your time with it. I won’t let you down with the compensation. But can I go now? I have a meeting with the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation,” He Jiankui said. “About micro-dust.”

“Micro-dust?”

“It’s for the respiratory health of our people.”

With a smile, He Jiankui stood up.

“This is how hard I work to improve the health of my people.”

* * *

“This doesn’t make any sense...”

Young-Joon was in shock as he read the paper. This data wasn't good enough to be considered as preclinical data. Not enough animals were used, and the pharmacological mechanism, toxicity test, and the excretion test were all unclear.

‘Someone like He Jiankui is doing experiments like this?’

This was the kind of academic junk that scammers used in order to be able to claim something as a scientific paper. It was impossible for the public to know which journal it was published, or whether it was actually peer-reviewed. As such, once that magic phrase was added, the credibility of all sorts of pseudoscience skyrocketed.

“Ms. Yoo,” Young-Joon called his secretary. “Please arrange a visit to West China Hospital. And please arrange a Chinese interpreter.”

“Okay.”

“We are going to visit Mimi, the CCR5-engineered baby, and her guardian. Please give this message to the hospital and make plans with the guardian.”

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