７．M
「――注意しておくべきなのは、二〇一六年の不祥事だ」
「不祥事？」
「いわゆる不正や隠ぺいではない。上場企業としての構造――その歪みが、浮き彫りになった」
ページをめくる音だけが、数秒続いた。
「リラは薬を『作って終わり』という会社じゃない。患者に投与まで届かなきゃ、カネにならない事業だ」
「……病院側が要る、ってことか」
「しかし、上場企業が『病院』を持つのは、通らないはずですね」
「今は全部読まなくていい」
Ａは指で該当箇所を一度だけ叩いた。
「一件の起点は、提携病院だ。表向きは別法人――だが、別と言い切れないのでは、と囁かれた」
ＢはＤが袖口に目をやり、エアコンのリモコンに手を伸ばした。
「疑いが連鎖して、火消しが遅れた。規模は縮み、株価は現在――百円だ」
※
“—What you need to keep an eye on is the 2016 scandal.”
“A scandal?”
“Not the usual kind—no blatant fraud, no cover-up. This was about the structure of the company as a listed entity… and the distortion in that structure finally showing itself.”
For a few seconds, the only sound was the soft rasp of pages turning.
“Lila isn’t a company that can just make drugs and be done with it. Unless the product reaches the patient—unless it actually gets administered—there’s no money in it.”
“…So you need the hospital side.”
“But a publicly listed company owning a hospital shouldn’t fly,” Birch said.
“You don’t have to read every line right now.”
Alder tapped the relevant passage once—only once—with his finger.
“The flashpoint was an affiliated hospital. Officially, it was a separate legal entity. But people started whispering that it wasn’t separate enough to claim it was truly ‘other.’”
Birch noticed Dahlia holding at her cuff and reached for the air-conditioner remote.
“Suspicion bred suspicion, and the response came too late. The operation was cut down, and the share price is now—one hundred yen.”
