Opioid selling Indian opium which was smuggled into China in defiance of Chinese government bans. This led to the First (1839–1842) and Second Opium Wars (1856–1860) between China and Britain. In the 19th century, two major scientific advances were made that had far-reaching effects. Around 1804, German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner isolated morphine from opium. He described its crystallization, structure, and pharmacological properties in a well-received paper in 1817. Morphine was the first alkaloid to be isolated from any medicinal plant, the beginning of modern scientific drug discovery. The second advance, nearly fifty years later, was the refinement of the hypodermic needle
Dying to Survive money for brain surgery. One day a man wearing thick layers of surgical masks comes to his shop. He asks Cheng to bring a cheap drug from India in return for a large sum of money. The Swiss drug Geliening is very expensive in China, due to patent protection, causing many patients to not be able to afford the treatments, but, a very inexpensive generic version of it is available in India. Desperate for money, Cheng agrees to risk smuggling the drug into China. As more CML patients buy drugs from him, Cheng becomes rich. His motivation starts to change