经济学人57:美国快捷药方公司与美可保健

 　　Business

　　商业

　　Express Scripts and Medco

　　美国快捷药方公司与美可保健

　　Bigger means cheaper

　　越大越便宜

　　A new drugs manager may change the way Americans pop their pills

　　全新的药物管理者可能改变美国人购买药品的方式

　　IT TOOK eight months and more than 200 interviews.

　　花了八个多月的时间，会面达到200多次。

　　But on April 2nd America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided¹, in a three-to-one vote, to let Express Scripts acquire Medco.

　　但是4月2日，美国联邦贸易委员会以三比一的投票决定同意美国快捷药方公司收购美可保健。

　　The two firms are America's second-biggest and biggest pharmacy²-benefit managers.

　　两家公司合并后将成为美国第二大药品公司以及最大的药品福利管理者。

　　Eventually, they may change the way Americans take drugs.

　　这两家公司的合并可能最终改变美国人购买药物的方式。

　　Despite an intolerably dull title, pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs) are important.

　　尽管标题无聊的令人无法忍受，但是药品福利管理者（PBMs）十分重要。

　　America is the world's biggest drug market; in 2010 it spent more than $307 billion on prescription³ medicines.

　　美国是世界上最大的药品市场；2010年美国在处方药上的花费达到3070亿美元。

　　PBMs are the middlemen that manage drug costs for employers and insurers. Together, Express Scripts and Medco will control more than 40% of the market.

　　药品福利管理是是平衡雇主和保险公司之间医药费用的中间人，快捷药方公司与美可保健一起将能控制40%以上的药品市场份额。

　　Express Scripts announced the acquisition in July 2011. Medco was a good company that had had a bad year, and so looked cheap.

　　快捷药方公司曾宣布在2011年7月完成收购工作，美可保健去年情况不佳，看起来有点贬值，但美可保健是一个业绩不错的公司。

　　It had lost about 30% of its business in a few months as some of its largest clients ended their contracts.

　　由于一些大客户终止了合同，美可保健几个月内就损失了30%的生意。

　　For both firms, bigger ought to mean better.

　　对两家公司来说，扩大经营必须意味着良好的收益。

　　With scale would come the power to negotiate fatter discounts on drugs, lowering costs for employers and insurers.

　　大规模将在药品折扣问题的商讨上占有更大的优势，并降低雇佣者和保险公司的成本。

　　Pharmacists felt sick when they heard the news.

　　听说了这个消息之后药剂师感觉并不好。

　　PBMs encourage consumers to fill their prescriptions⁴ through the mail instead of going to a costly⁵ pharmacy.

　　药品福利管理者鼓励消费者通过邮件方式而不是通过花费过高的药品公司购买药物。

　　PBMs, pharmacists fret⁶, will crush their fees for dispensing⁷ drugs.

　　药品福利管理者让药剂师们很头痛，药品福利管理者会把削减开处方药的费用。

　　Worse, PBMs will demand that drugmakers give them exclusive deals for new, complex medicines.

　　更糟糕的是，药品福利管理者要求药品制造上对于新药和合成药给与特别的折扣。

　　Competitors and consumers will suffer, the pharmacists argue.

　　药剂师认为竞争者和消费者都会遭受损失。

　　The FTC disagreed.

　　联邦贸易委员会并不这么认为。

　　The merged⁸ firm is unlikely to squeeze pharmacies⁹' fees for dispensing drugs, it ruled.

　　合并后的公司不可能压榨药剂师配置药物的费用，只是对此收费进行规范。

　　There remain plenty of lively, smaller PBMs.

　　市场中还有很多小规模活跃的药品福利管理者。

　　John Kreger of William Blair, an investment bank, says there is enough turmoil—thanks both to the merger¹⁰ and to Express Scripts' continuing fight with Walgreens, a big pharmacy—that smaller PBMs may snatch new business in the next year.

　　投资银行William Blair的John Kreger说已经够乱了——多亏两家公司的合并，还有快捷药方公司与大型的医药公司Walgreens不断的竞争——小规模的药品福利管理者明年会抢走新业务。

　　The small fry may also benefit if the pharmacy lobby's lawsuit¹¹ against the merger moves forward.

　　如果反对合并进程的药品游说诉讼能够成功的话，小公司也能从中获益。

　　The combined firm will have $91 billion in revenue in 2012, estimates Lawrence Marsh¹², an analyst¹³ at Barclays Capital.

　　据巴莱克集团的分析师Lawrence Marsh预测，合并后的公司在2012年的收益能够达到910亿美元。

　　It is so big that it could shape a new era for America's drug market.

　　收益如此巨大以至于可以塑造美国药品市场的新纪元。

　　As more drugs lose their patents, consumers will increasingly fill their prescriptions with generics¹⁵.

　　由于越来越多的药品不再拥有专利权，越来越多的消费者都会使用非专利药物开具处方。

　　If Express Scripts has its way, they will also fill their prescriptions by post.

　　如果快捷药品公司也采用此方法，那么他们也会采取邮寄方式开药方。

　　Medco recently acquired a firm that compares the efficacy of different drugs.

　　美可保健最近收购了一家比较药品不同功效的公司。

　　This may prove useful when America begins to see cheap copies of complex drugs, called biosimilars, which will be tested against the originals.

　　美国开始看到合成药剂的复制品，即生物仿制药，价格低廉，能用来与源药品做对比试验。此时上述收购还是极为有益的。

　　The new Express Scripts may also play a role on Barack Obama's new insurance exchanges, working with insurers to court individuals shopping for health care.

　　新的快捷药方公司同样在奥巴马提出的新型保险交易中扮演了重要角色，他和保险代理人一起劝说个人购买健康保险。

　　Most intriguingly¹⁶, the new Express Scripts could push Americans to buy the right medicines and take them at the right time.

　　最有趣的是新的快捷药方公司可以推动美国人在正确的时间购买正确的药物。

　　For years PBMs have tested ways to urge consumers to buy cheaper, effective drugs.

　　几年来，药品福利管理者尝试新的方法以促使消费者购买便宜而有效的药物，

　　For example, if a patient wants a branded pill rather than a generic¹⁴, he must pay for more of it himself.

　　例如如果病人想购买品牌药物而非一般药物，他要为多出的费用自己掏腰包。

　　Experiments will probably scale up and become more sophisticated.

　　这样的试验将逐步扩大规模，也会越来越复杂。

　　Eventually, they might even spread to Medicaid, the public programme for the poor.

　　最终将波及医疗补助计划，该计划是救助穷人的公共计划。

　　Health reform (unless the Supreme¹⁷ Court strikes it down) will add 16m new members to Medicaid by 2019, a 27% jump.

　　到2019年，健康改革（除非最高法院将其驳回）将增加160万名新的受益者，约增长了27%。

　　PBMs such as Medco and Express Scripts have so far spent little time chasing the Medicaid market.

　　像美可保健和快捷药方公司这样的药品福利管理者迄今为止在医疗补助计划投入的时间还不多。

　　That may change.

　　这种情况可能会有所改变。

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

3 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

4 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

6 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.

7 dispensing   

v.分配( dispense的现在分词 )；施与；配（药）

参考例句：

• A dispensing optician supplies glasses, but doesn't test your eyes. 配镜师为你提供眼镜，但不检查眼睛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The firm has been dispensing ointments. 本公司配制药膏。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 merged   

（使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中

参考例句：

• Turf wars are inevitable when two departments are merged. 两个部门合并时总免不了争争权限。
• The small shops were merged into a large market. 那些小商店合并成为一个大商场。

9 pharmacies   

药店

参考例句：

• Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
• Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店，和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网

10 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

11 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

12 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

13 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

14 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

15 generics   

n.（产品，尤指药物 ）无厂家商标的，无商标的( generic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pfizer has set up an in-house division to handle such generics. Pfizer已经建立了一个内部机构来处理这些学名药。 来自互联网
• Payers are being more pushy about getting patients to take generics. 药物费用的支付者更倾向于让病人使用非专利药。 来自互联网

16 intriguingly   

参考例句：

• Intriguingly, she gave to the music a developed although oddly malleable personality. 最神奇的是，她的音乐具有成熟却又很奇怪地极富可塑性。 来自互联网
• Intriguingly, the patients brains were riddled with tangles, but not amyloid plaques. 有趣的是，患者的大脑中充满了各缠结，但并没有粉斑。 来自互联网

17 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。