编者按：中国制药有何优势？本文将为你剖析中国药企正在成为全球新药开发重要力量的几个原因。本文译自《经济学人》3月18日刊。

来自中国

​The pharma business

A better pill from China

更好的药丸来自中国

Chinese pharma firms are starting to develop new drugs for the global market
中国制药公司开始为全球市场开发新的药物

1. WALK into the Shanghai laboratories of Chi-Med, a biotech firm, and you encounter the sort of shiny, cutting-edge facilities common in any major pharma company in America, Europe or Japan. Chi-Med（和黄药业）has just had positive results in a late-stage trial of its drug for colorectal cancer, which is called Fruquintinib. If the drug is approved both in China and in Western markets it could be the very first prescription drug to be designed and developed entirely in China that will be on a path to global commercialisation.
   1）走进上海和黄药业的实验室，一家生物技术公司，你会邂逅那些在欧美或日本任何大型制药公司都很常见的闪亮、尖端的设施。和黄中国药业在直肠癌药物的后期试验是阳性结果，这种药物被称为呋喹替尼。如果该药在中国和在西方市场都被批准（生产），它可能是完全在中国被设计和开发的第一批处方药，中国（药业）将走向全球商业化道路。

2. Given China’s ageing population, higher incomes and rising demand for health care it is clear why innovation in drugs is a priority for the country. Its national market for drugs has grown rapidly in recent years to become the world’s second-largest. It could grow from $108bn in 2015 to around 167bn dollars by 2020, according to an estimate from America’s Department of Commerce. By comparison, America spends about $400bn a year on drugs.
   2）鉴于中国的老龄化人口、更高个人收入和不断上升的医疗保健需求，为何在药物方面的创新成为这个国家的当务之急就一清二楚了。近年来，中国药品的国内市场迅速增长，已经成为世界第二大药品市场。据美国商务部估算，它可以从2015年的1080亿美元增长到2020年的约1670亿美元。相比之下，美国在药物上一年花费了约4000亿美元。

3. Chinese firms mainly sell cheap,** generic medicines** that earn only razor-thin margins. The pharma industry is extremely fragmented, with thousands of tiny manufacturers and distributors. That helps explain the limited amount of finance that is available for investment in new medicines. Most Chinese pharma firms devote less than 5% of sales to R&D, according to a report last year from the World Health Organisation (big global drug firms typically spend 14%-18% of sales on R&D). And the bulk of that spending goes to research into generics.
   3）中国公司主要销售便宜的通用名药物，只能挣到微薄的利润。制药行业极为分散，有数以千计的小型制造商和分销商。这有助于解释可用于新药投资的资金为何有限。根据世界卫生组织去年的一份报告，大多数中国制药公司投入了不到5%的销售额用于研发，(大型全球制药公司通常在研发上花费销售额的14%到18%）。这些支出大部分用于研究通用名药物。

通用名药物（英语：Generic Drug、又称国际非专有名称药物、非专利药、学名药）是由各国政府规定的、国家药典或药品标准采用的法定药物。
没有专利的通用名药物在专利未过期（一般为20年，除去研究与实验时间，大致7-12年）时不被允许销售（特殊情况除外），但一旦专利过期别的厂商就会进入市场，可以大幅降低原本受到专利限制药物的价格。目前非专利药物生产大国为印度，这些非专利药生产厂的特征在于后发销售，本地药商仿效西方大型药厂已经做好的结果，一般都会在采用相同的化合物之外调整部分成分，除了让贫困的地区民众得到医疗，印度厂商所生产的大量药物还销往外国，产品在国际上有很多第三世界国家中采用。
另外，Generic Drug实际意义就是为在药理功效上与专利药物相近的药物，通常厂商或多或少采用了先行药厂的相关经验。由于此类药物生产厂商不需要向药物发明者支付专利费（包含着药物设计，临床试验等很多费用），所以通用名药物在价格上会相对便宜。——维基百科

4. But things are changing quickly. The government is encouraging the industry to consolidate, chiefly by raising standards for the quality of new medicines. It is also improving the country’s regulatory infrastructure, which should make it more efficient, and faster, to develop drugs. The value of deals in the health-care sector has been increasing as a result. ChinaBio, a research firm, reckons that over $40bn of foreign and local money went into the life sciences in China in 2016. In the same year just three Chinese biotech firms—CStone, Innovent and Ascletis—together raised more than $500m of financing.
   4）但一切正在迅速改变。政府在鼓励制药企合并，主要通过提高新药品质量标准的方式。它也在改善国家的监管基础设施，这应该使它更高效、更快速地开发药物。因此，医疗保健行业的交易价值不断增加。一家美国研究公司ChinaBio估计，2016年超过400亿美元的中外资金进入中国的生命科学（产业）。在同一年，仅三家中国生物科技公司——上海基石药业、苏州信达生物以及杭州歌礼生物科技有限公司——就一起筹集了超过5亿美元融资。

5. Another boost is the arrival of talent from abroad, whether Chinese-born executives returning with a Western education or Westerners with experience of multinational pharmaceutical firms. Christian Hogg, the boss of Chi-Med—which was founded in 2000, has eight drugs in clinical development and listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2016—used to work at Procter & Gamble, a global consumer-goods firm. Samantha Du, the firm’s very first scientific officer, was formerly an executive at Pfizer, an American pharma giant. Now known as the godmother of Chinese biopharma, she used to manage health-care investments for Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley venture-capital firm. In 2013 she helped found Zai Lab, which licenses late-stage drugs from Western pharma companies to develop and sell in China. Zai Lab also aims to develop innovative medicines in immuno-oncology.
   5）另一个推动因素是海外人才的到来，无论是接受西方教育又回国的中国管理人员，还是有跨国制药公司经验的西方人士。贺隽是成立于2000年的和黄药业的老板，该公司拥有临床开发的八种药物，并于2016年在纳斯达克股票交易所上市。他曾在全球消费品公司宝洁公司工作。该公司的第一位科班出身的高管杜莹曾是美国制药业巨头辉瑞制药公司的执行官。现在她被称为中国生物制药的教母，她曾为一家硅谷风险投资企业——红杉资本管理医疗保健投资。2013年她帮助创立(总部位于上海的生物科技公司)再鼎医药，该公司从西方制药公司取得后期药物许可证以在中国研发并销售。再鼎医药还致力于开发免疫肿瘤学方面的创新药物。

6. Another firm attracting attention is BeiGene, an oncology firm based in Beijing, which has four clinical-stage drug candidates and which raised $158m in an IPO last year. Chi-Med’s Fruquintinib may even be beaten in the race to approval in America and Japan by a cancer drug called Epidaza from Chipscreen Biosciences of Shenzhen. China approved it in 2015.
   6）另一家引人关注的是总部位于北京、从事抗癌药研发的百济神州生物制药公司，它有四种临床阶段的候选药物，并在去年首次公开募股到1.58亿美元。和黄中国药业的呋喹替尼可能在美国和日本获得许可的竞赛中被深圳微芯生物科技的抗癌药物Epidaza所击败。而中国于2015年就批准了它（前者的研发）。

7. It is too early to say whether these innovative firms will remain rarities. Only a few large ones have emerged, since the industry is resisting consolidation. But the size of the local market will itself help the industry grow. And developing a drug in China is far cheaper than it is in America or Europe. Given the outrage at the high cost of drugs in America, in particular, there is every incentive for Chinese firms to develop medicines for the global market.
   7）这些创新型企业是否会继续成为凤毛麟角尚言之过早。只有少数大公司已崭露头角，因为该行业一直在抵制整合。但本地市场的规模本身将有助于行业增长。在中国开发一种新药（的成本）远比欧美低廉。尤其是，鉴于美国药品价格昂贵引起愤慨，中国企业为全球市场开发药品的动机十足。

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试着翻译以下句子：
1、鉴于中国的老龄化人口、更高个人收入和不断上升的健康护理需求，为何在药物方面的创新成为这个国家的当务之急就一清二楚了。

2、另一个推动因素是海外人才的到来，无论是接受西方教育又回国的中国管理人员，还是有跨国制药公司经验的西方人士。

3、尤其是，鉴于美国药品价格昂贵引起愤慨，中国企业为全球市场开发药品的动机十足。

原文出处：经济学人杂志

翻译：追梦心；校对：七呵夫；编辑：七呵夫

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