| General Fiction posted October 13, 2024 | Chapters: |
...45 46 -47- 
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The Final Chapter
A chapter in the book DUEL with the DEVIL
DUEL with the DEVIL - Chapter 47
by Jim Wile
The author has placed a warning on this post for language.
| Background A brilliant young chemist creates a new painkilling drug with unknown benefits and pitfalls. |
Recap of Chapter 46: With Paul Rieke’s help, Brian is able to reconfigure Dipraxa into Glyptophan, which solves the euphoria-production problem. Brian carries on successful animal trials as well as his own personal human trial with great success and files for and receives a patent for Glyptophan.
Fran returns from her mission and contacts Brian for the first time in over a year. They talk for two hours by phone, and Brian catches her up on what’s been happening in his life.
Out of the blue, Daniel Molebatsi, Brian’s college roommate, calls with news that he and Kimi and their three children are in the US on vacation from Botswana, where they live. They agree to meet, and the Molebatsi clan arrives in a large RV. This pleasant visit lets them catch up on their lives.
Chapter 47
April 2024
During the remaining months of 2023, I completed both the animal testing and my own personal testing of Glyptophan with amazingly good results. I felt terrific, both physically and mentally. My pain remained at a level one, which was barely noticeable, and only increased if I stopped taking Glyptophan. I tried this for short periods to make sure the drug was still working, and each time I went off it, the pain returned, but went back to level 1 when I started up again.
During this same period, I was busy developing the required Investigational New Drug application (IND) to the FDA for approval to proceed with human testing. It took months to compile all my data and present it in a logical and comprehensive manner in this application. When Julia was home, she helped me with it. She was quite familiar with the entire project and proved to be an invaluable aid in completing the application.
I submitted the IND in early December, and by mid-January, it was approved for Phase 1 human trials.
Something I had to seriously consider was what would be required to actually bring this drug to market. It would take vast resources and a number of years, perhaps 10, before I could start earning any money from it if I were to manage it all alone. What would I do in the interim to finance the production costs and generate income until it started to turn a profit?
The answer was to attempt to sign a licensing agreement with a pharmaceutical company to manufacture the drug. I could have just tried to sell them the patent rights, but signing a licensing agreement would give me greater control and would assure greater compensation if the drug proves to be successful.
I could also try to establish various financial arrangements with the company, including upfront money, known as a licensing fee, and milestone payments upon the successful completion of each testing phase, which would enable me to start earning income immediately.
Since I had departed from Detry Pharmaceutical on good terms, I talked to them first about manufacturing the drug and these financial matters. During the next few months, I also talked to three other companies, but Detry made me the best offer. All of the companies saw the money-making potential of Glyptophan and were willing to compete for it and risk paying very large licensing fees even before the Phase 1 human testing, just based on the IND. Detry’s wasn’t the highest offer, although close enough, but their royalty percent was the highest of the four companies I was considering.
My former co-workers in the R&D Department at Detry had studied my IND very closely, and we talked extensively about the drug. They were convinced I had a winner, and they were influential in persuading the finance people to offer me a very lucrative licensing fee before testing even began, with substantial increases after each successful testing phase. If the drug makes it all the way to production, I will already have earned $30 million, and I will potentially make much more in royalties. This was a no-brainer, and with Julia’s blessing, I signed a contract with them two weeks ago.
I catch Julia’s eye as she comes through the main concourse. She is returning from a week-long trip to Brussels, Belgium, where she performed in several concerts with the Belgian National Orchestra. She looks tired, but she has a smile for me, and we hug and kiss when we reach each other.
“How did it go, Sweetie?”
“Oh, it went fine, I guess.”
She’s usually bursting with enthusiasm following her international travels, but this tepid response is further proof of a noticeable shift in her attitude about her job. It seems that ever since the visit by the Molebatsi family last summer, Julia’s enthusiasm for travel has been slowly waning.
“You don’t seem that thrilled about it. What’s wrong, Jules?” I ask her as we head through the terminal towards baggage claim.
“Don’t get me wrong, Babe. I still love playing the violin; it’s just everything else about the job that’s beginning to get to me. In the early days, I could overlook the flight delays and missed connections, the hotel overbookings and snobby attitudes towards American women when I would travel to foreign countries. Of constantly being hit on by various men and even women in the orchestras I would play with, and a whole host of other things. It was still new and exciting then, but it’s all just getting old for me now.”
I wait for a moment before saying, “Is there more?” I have a feeling she isn’t quite finished. After a few seconds when she doesn’t answer, I realize she isn’t walking beside me anymore. I turn and look back. She’s just standing there in the middle of the concourse, and I return to her.
“I think I want to have a baby, Brian, before I get any older.” She looks at me uncertainly, as if gauging my reaction to this.
I stare at her for a few seconds. Then I say, “Well, let’s start as soon as we get home.” We both break into a smile.
“You mean it?” she says.
“More than ever, Jules. I’ve been waiting to hear you say this for a while now. I didn’t want to pressure you because I knew it would affect your touring, but I’m ready to have kids too. We always talked about it one day. Maybe now’s the time.”
We drop everything we’re carrying, and she comes into my arms. We begin kissing, and it starts to get passionate. She breaks it off after a bit and says, “I think we should stop before we start making a baby right here in the middle of the airport.”
I laugh. “Yeah, maybe we should.”
6 months later
W.G. Hefner VA Medical Center
Salisbury, North Carolina
October 2024
I scan the crowd in front of me from the lectern. Most are young men. Some are in wheel chairs in the front row. There are many amputees with prosthetic devices of varying complexity. Some are burn victims. Others have no apparent visible injuries, but all are here for a reason. These men have seen combat in foreign wars and are the lucky ones who made it home, but not without grievous wounds and great pain.
“Good afternoon. My name is Brian Kendrick, and I’ve created a new analgesic pain medication called Glyptophan. I’m here today to enlist test subjects for the Phase 1 clinical drug trial that has recently been approved for my drug by the FDA. All of you have received my introductory letter, or you probably wouldn’t be here today. As you likely know from the information provided, there will be no control group for this phase of testing, and all participants will receive the drug, but in varying quantities, which is part of what we hope to learn: the ideal dose and the resulting side effects.
“As I stated in the introductory letter, I myself have had chronic back pain for 15 years and got addicted to opioid pain medication. I have taken this new drug myself. I’m taking it now, and it has brought my pain from an average level of 5-6 down to level-1.”
A number of smiles and a general stirring from the attendees greet this pronouncement.
“It could be brought to 0, but that would be unsafe to never feel any pain. There is no euphoric feeling associated with taking this drug, but it is at least as effective in killing pain as high levels of opioids, but without the danger of overdose or addiction. There are no withdrawal symptoms should you stop taking the drug, but your pain will return. It doesn’t cure the pain; it only masks it, but for those who suffer with pain, you may deem this good enough, as some conditions cannot be cured.
“I’m here today to answer any questions you have and to recruit volunteers for the Phase 1 trials. All volunteers will be screened for suitability as test subjects, and those accepted into the trials will be compensated. I’ll open the floor to questions now, and after all questions are answered, we’ll have some refreshments for you and some musical entertainment by The Clark Creek Drifters, featuring my wife, Julia, on fiddle and banjo.”
I answer a number of questions about the drug and the drug trial, and by the end of the questions, many in the audience pick up the information packets with the signature forms inside. I’m encouraged by their questions and this response. I’m hoping to recruit at least 20 volunteers from this group. I will recruit more volunteers from other groups at a later date.
Julia is the one who told me about the W.G. Hefner VA Medical Center originally because she played in a concert here with her bluegrass band a few months ago. She was moved by the condition of the wounded servicemen and suggested to me that they may want to assist in the Phase 1 trials.
She’s up there on a raised platform now, playing her fiddle with the band. She’s adorable in a little denim jumper. There is a noticeable bump in front of her body.
The crowd seems to love the music. The final piece is “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” of course, and they bring me up to do the vocals. I have practiced this with the band before, and they’re happy to have me do it with them.
I love this song, and I think about it a lot. The lyrics of the final stanza before the chorus go like this:
The Devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat
And he laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny's feet
Johnny said, "Devil, just come on back if you ever wanna try again
I done told you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best there's ever been"
And he laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny's feet
Johnny said, "Devil, just come on back if you ever wanna try again
I done told you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best there's ever been"
It makes me think of my struggles with the demons throughout my life—the pain I’ve suffered in most part due to my own carelessness and stupidity, the powerful addiction to painkillers I’d developed, and the crushing depression I experienced, which was a soul killer, when I thought about all my failures.
And then I think about all the help I’ve had from the people closest to me to help me fight and overcome these crushing demons. I couldn’t have made it through without them: Fran, Paul Rieke, Daniel, Kimi, and most of all my beloved Julia, whose belief in me never wavered and whose love for me and strength saw me through the lowest, most devastating time in my life. I will always remember and cherish that.
And if my drug passes all the trials and eventually comes to market, I will attribute its success to all the love and support I received from these wonderful people, and most especially from Julia.
As she once said of my duel with the devil, “We will beat him once and for all, Babe, because together, we’re the best there’s ever been!”
Epilogue
Sometime in the near future, in an undisclosed location in the US
At a secret meeting, representatives from several of the myriad alphabet soup agencies in the US government sit around a table, listening to the Special Agent in Charge.
“You’ve all been assigned to this mission to see what the smartass little shit knows and to act on it. We’ve got him dead-to-rights, but as yet, he refuses to cooperate and give us anything about his bosses or his mission. Not surprising in light of our current standards on enhanced interrogation. Until and unless those change, we can’t torture him. We have to—”
“Sir?”
“—abide by the rules, which limit the number of tools avail—”
“Sir?”
“What is it, Agent Fuckup? I don’t like to be interrupted.”
“Agent Fuckup” is an endearingly ironic moniker for one of the FBI’s top field agents. It comes from the initials of her name, Francine Kendrick Pekarsky, or FKP. She is a formidable woman with extraordinary talents of both physical toughness and keen analysis, and she has been chosen by the Director himself for this mission.
“I may know of a way to get him to talk without resorting to torture, per se, that should fall within the existing framework of rules.”
She commands great respect within this group, and she has their undivided attention.
“What do you mean by ‘per se?’” asks the SAC.
“Let me frame it like this, sir. There are two basic methods in use for motivating behavior: pleasure and pain, the so-called carrot and stick. The stick represents torture, which is currently defined as the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering. Instead of using a stick, what if we were to use a super carrot capable of invoking such extreme feelings of pleasure that our captive would do or tell us everything to keep getting it? If we were to use such a substance on him and then withhold it from him until the little shit talks, I don’t believe we could be accused of using torture under its current definition. I should also mention that no physical harm or lasting mental harm would come to him when it is withheld or stopped altogether. It would be unlike a narcotic in this respect.”
“And you know of such a substance?” asks the SAC.
With her brother’s earlier version of the drug in mind, Fran simply smiles….
Book of the Month contest entry
 Recognized |
A very warm thank you to all who read and reviewed this story. You have been a great group of readers and have provided me with wonderful feedback and encouragement along the way.
This is purely a work of fiction. There are no such drugs as Dipraxa or Glyptophan, although efforts are being made to discover a non-addictive painkiller to replace opioids.
Although much of the science in the novel exists, including gene therapy, gene manipulation, the use of nanoparticles to deliver drugs to specific areas in the body, and sodium channel blocking, I'm not sure in exactly what direction scientific research is going in order to find a solution to the problem of opioids. I also have no idea if Brian's idea for a drug is at all feasible. Not being a neuroscientist myself or any kind of scientist, and armed only with many hours of internet research, my ideas for Brian's solution may be totally unworkable.
As you can see from the Epilogue, I've left the possibility open for a sequel to this story. I haven't done too much thinking about it yet, but I have a few ideas. You will likely see not only characters from this novel, but several favorites from previous novels as well.
Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro and Remaker
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