All of the statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are reproduced at the end of this article
During the three-year epidemic period, when many enterprises were unable to protect themselves, an entrepreneur acted at a high level, from being worth 8.72 billion yuan in 2020 to 31 billion yuan after the end of the epidemic, making 22.28 billion yuan in just three years.
After appearing on the rich list, he even made wild claims, claiming that he could live to be 120 years old, and even his employees could live to be 100 years old.
Who is he, and how did he go crazy to make money during the epidemic?
"Fishing for gold" during the epidemic
At the end of 2019, when the new crown epidemic swept the country, Wang Jian, who opened a medical company, did not receive any impact, when Zhong Nanshan took the medical team to Wuhan retrograde, Wang Jian also followed in his footsteps and went to the front line of Wuhan with his own scientific research team.
It took only five days for BGI to set up the FireEye Laboratory to assist the scientific research team in researching the new coronavirus, and this laboratory successfully detected some small omissions in the previous experiments, which greatly helped the isolation task and allowed patients to be distinguished according to the different degrees of infection.
After that, Wang Jian began to devote himself to the research of vaccines, when he and his team had to be vaccinated more than 10,000 times a day, and the daily production of reagents started at 100,000.
For these dangerous tasks at that time, he has always been hands-on, working with the doctors in the hospital to successfully control the epidemic.
In addition, his company provides equipment for follow-up research, and it can be said that the epidemic can be well prevented and controlled, which is inseparable from the joint efforts of BGI and other scientific research and medical staff, who have made great contributions to the world's epidemic prevention and control.
Because of his feats, his corporate reputation has risen with the tide, and in the comparison before and after the epidemic, his assets have directly increased by 22.28 billion yuan, directly on the list of China's richest people.
But such a statement is too one-sided, and Wang Jian's contribution is enough to support him to have such assets. But the first time people knew him was not on the front line of the fight against the epidemic, but back to the SARS period in China.
Contribute during the SARS period
In 2003, SARS swept the country, a respiratory infectious disease caused by the SARS virus, enveloping the entire continent, and then in this situation, people were panicked, social unrest, and many people were already holding the heart of death to get through this difficult period.
In the midst of the pandemic, China sought to send experts to study the virus and try to find a cure, and at this critical moment, BGI stepped forward and began to help treat patients, find the source of the disease and start researching a vaccine.
However, at that time, China's vaccine technology was not developed, and there were still many technical barriers to the development of vaccines, which has always been a difficult barrier for China to break, but Wang Jian did not choose to give up, but devoted himself more fully to the research of vaccines.
But at that time, Wang Jian had not made any achievements, even if he joined the team of medical research, but for the seminars held by professionals, he still did not have the right to formally participate, but he did not complain at all, just kept looking for opportunities to audit, and took the initiative to ask Ying to explain that he was willing to help with the study of the virus.
In this way, Wang Jian smoothly joined the professional scientific research team, and he proposed that if you want to treat the disease, the first step is to detect whether you are infected or sick.
For his words, professional scientific research and medical personnel also expressed their approval, so they brought him the SARS virus. What everyone didn't expect was that Wang Jian led his team to crack the virus gene and develop a diagnostic reagent in only 36 hours.
When everyone thought that he was going to make a lot of money because of this, he struck while the iron was hot and urgently developed 300,000 reagents to donate to the country for free.
At that time, many people knew the seriousness of SARS, but because they did not know whether they were infected, everyone was determined to die at the beginning, but after having reagents, the negative and positive were clear at a glance, and doctors could treat the disease according to the patient, which solved the waste of manpower and material resources for vigorous investigation.
His move has completely made BGI famous all over the country, and among them, Wang Jian, the chairman of BGI, who has been going to the front line in person, is even more known.
And his achievements are completely due to his heart of wanting to contribute to the development of China's science and technology.
Scientific genius
Wang Jian was born in a relatively poor family in Hunan in the 50s of the last century, when he just graduated from junior high school, the country called on young people to go to the countryside, so in response to the call of the country, he became one of them, in that backward environment, he still did not give up learning, every time he went home after being busy in the dark, the first thing he did was to open his textbook and read.
In addition to his busy work, he still finds time to read and increase his knowledge.
Until the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977, he actively participated in the college entrance examination, and with the knowledge he had accumulated, he was successfully admitted to Hunan Medical University, at this time he began to indulge in medicine, and with the obsession with medicine, he was admitted to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
After graduating with a master's degree in traditional Chinese and Western medicine, he began to engage in research on the treatment of atherosclerosis.
At that time, China had not yet made significant achievements in medical research, so in order to be able to further medical studies, Wang Jian decided to go to the United States to study for a doctorate, and in 1990, he was admitted to Texas State University in the United States to continue his studies in biomedicine.
Until graduation, he had become a rare doctor in the field of biomedical sciences in China, and with his excellent grades, the United States was willing to pay him a generous salary to try to keep him, but Wang Jian came with a purpose, he just wanted to return to China to start his own business after completing his studies.
After returning to China, he returned to dedicating himself to the study of human genes.
In 1998, he successfully served as the Executive Director of the Human Genome Center of the Institute of Genetics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and successfully promoted China's sequencing of the International Genomics Project, enabling China to participate smoothly.
But such achievements and positions obviously did not satisfy him, so after some careful consideration, he decided to quit his job and start his own company.
In 1999, Wang Jian's BGI was established, and Wang Jian led his team to continue to study human genes and find ways to treat diseases.
By 2018, Wang Jian had spoken wildly, and he confidently said that he could live to be 120 years old, and even employees could live to be 100 years old.
His ambition will naturally attract many people to pour cold water, saying that he has been the boss for a long time and thinks that his mana is boundless, but is it really that simple to say such a heroic word?
In fact, the reason why he can say such a thing is entirely because he has this confidence, BGI also has this strength, and Wang Jian is full of confidence in his research in the field of genes.
Even in order to make himself and his employees more healthy and long-lived, when he went to work, Wang Jian did not let employees take the elevator, and he said that climbing stairs is beneficial to health, and employees who have been sitting in the office for a long time have been taken by Wang Jian, but they really have a feeling of being healthy.
Therefore, those words that say that Wang Jian has made a difficult fortune for the country are pure nonsense, on the contrary, it is precisely because there are thousands of scientific research talents like Wang Jian that the mainland can directly save the mainland from fire and water again and again.
Although people have mixed reviews about it, he can definitely be called an excellent scientific research and medical personnel.
Information sources:
This article was originally published in the Beijing News on May 31, 2018 on "BGI Wang Jian: Gene Maniac or Marketing Master?"
The original article was published in the Yangtze River Business Daily on December 05, 2022, on "Wang Jian is riddled with controversy, his wealth has shrunk by 25.6 billion, and he urgently needs to build a strong moat, and BGI's dividend has gradually retreated, and the deduction has not decreased by 49%, and he has fallen into a whistleblowing storm again".
The original article was published in the 29th issue of Tencent Video's "Cai Yue You" on December 15, 2017 about "Human beings will embark on a "journey of immortality"? Wang Jian: Live to 120 years old first"
.