经济学人下载:自食其药 制药巨头被迫解决行贿指控

Business
商业报道

Taking its medicine
自食其药

A drug giant coughs up to settle bribery charges
制药巨头被迫解决行贿指控

IN AMERICA, it was once common for drug firms to offer doctors perks to encourage them to prescribe their pills.
在美国，制药公司用提成来鼓励医生给病人使用他们的药品曾是司空见惯的事情。

Regulators now frown on such iffy sales techniques, and drug firms have more or less stopped using them.
如今，监管者对于这种可疑的销售手段感到不满，因而制药公司不得不或多或少地停止使用这些销售伎俩。

But in emerging markets, it is a different story,
但是在新兴市场中，它却是另一番景象。

as a settlement on August 7th between America's Department of Justice and Pfizer, a big American drug firm, made clear.
在8月7号，美国司法部门和美国的一家大型制药公司辉瑞之间的事件更清晰地解释了这种现象。

In China Pfizer established a club that provided high-prescribing doctors with all kinds of entertainment under the guise of attending conferences.
在中国，辉瑞公司建立了一个俱乐部，借助参加会议之名以各种形式款待那些开药量大的医生。

In Kazakhstan Pfizer awarded an exclusive distribution deal to a local firm after it was told there was no other way to secure government approval for a Pfizer product.
在哈萨克斯坦，辉瑞公司在得知没有其他方式来确保政府同意使用它的产品之后，它把独家销售权授予给了当地的一家公司以便出售其药品。

Unfortunately for Pfizer, such acts violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an American law that criminalises bribery abroad.
然而不幸的是，辉瑞的这些行为违反了《反国外行贿法规》，这是美国的一个判定在国外行贿的法律。

Doctors in many of the countries in question are state employees, making the gifts bribes to government officials.
在上述所谈及的很多国家中，医生属于政府机关工作人员，而辉瑞公司正在向这些政府官员进行送礼行贿。

This week Pfizer agreed to pay a fine to settle corruption charges and to disgorge related illegally earned profits to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
这周，辉瑞公司同意通过交付罚款来解决腐败指控并且向证券交易委员会交出相关的违法赚得的利润。

The settlement, which will cost it $60m or so, covers similar offences committed by Wyeth, another drug firm, before it was acquired by Pfizer in 2009.
为了解决此事件，辉瑞公司将会花费约六千万美元，这其中包括惠氏公司贿赂行为的罚款。惠氏公司于2009年被辉瑞公司收购，此前它曾涉嫌海外贿赂。

Johnson & Johnson, another big drugmaker, paid $70m last year to settle civil and criminal bribery charges.
另一个制药大亨强生公司，在去年花费七千万美元来解决民事和刑事上的行贿指控。

On August 6th Teva, an Israeli firm that is the world's largest generic drugmaker, said it was co-operating with SEC investigators.
在8月6日，以色列这家世界上最大的仿制制药商梯瓦制药公司说它正在配合美国证交会的调查者工作。

Indeed, eight of the world's ten biggest drug firms have warned of potential costs related to charges of corruption in markets abroad, according to Reuters.
事实上，据路透社称，世界上十大制药公司中的八家都忧虑地称有可能会因国外市场中的腐败指控而花掉大笔的钱。

So Pfizer's behaviour seems to have been normal for the industry, not an aberration.
因此在这个产业中，辉瑞公司的行为似乎是正常的，并非一个例外。

Citing the settlement, regulators will crow that the FCPA is being enforced more vigorously than at any time since it became law in 1977.
监管者借助这次的案例来告知制药商们一个信息，那就是自《反国外贿赂法规》1977年成为法律以来，

They will also hope that it is evidence that their new carrot-and-stick approach is starting to work.
相较于以往的任何时候，它在当今被赋予了更大的惩罚力度。

Most successful prosecutions in the past have been the result of whistle-blowing or a lucky break;
他们同样寄希望于这个软硬兼施的方法能成为行之有效的证据。

regulators have long suspected that many companies have publicly supported the law while privately turning a blind eye to dodgy activities abroad, doubtless assuming that they would never be caught.
在过去，大多数成功的起诉都被认为是告密或者巧合的结果，因而监管者一直怀疑很多公司表面上在遵纪守法而背地里却在国外做一些狡猾的买卖，多半在自认为不会露出马脚。

The new approach is designed to encourage companies to police themselves, by punishing them only lightly when they turn themselves in.
这个新方法旨在鼓励公司进行自我监督，而只有他们坦白自首时才会从轻发落。

The relatively small fine imposed on Pfizer was the Justice Department's way of showing that firms that co-operate will be treated leniently, says Ben Heineman of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院的Ben Heineman称，辉瑞公司相对较小的罚款金额表明了司法部门会酌情处理那些与它们配合的公司。

Pfizer has gone out of its way to placate prosecutors:
辉瑞公司已经一改以往的行事方式来配合检察官们:

it has been co-operating on the case since 2004, helping to identify illegal practices throughout its industry.
从2004年开始，它一直配合调查此案，帮助检察官们证明其在行业中的违法行为。

It also oversaw the process that uncovered the misbehaviour at Wyeth.
它还监督了揭露惠氏药厂不正当行为的审理过程。

The regulators have accepted Pfizer's claim that the offences were committed by local staff acting without the knowledge of head office in America.
监管者已经接受了辉瑞公司的说法，即声称本土员工的犯罪行为是在美国总部公司不知情的情况下进行的。

This follows April's decision by the SEC to charge a senior executive at Morgan Stanley, a bank, with corrupt activity in Shanghai,
在它之前是四月份美国证监会指控摩根史坦利投资公司，这家银行的一名高级主管在上海进行腐败活动的行为，

but not to impose legal penalties on the bank, which tipped off regulators about its rogue employee.
但美国证监会决定不对这家银行进行法律制裁，因为这家银行向监管者上报了其违纪人员的情况。

A few more examples of such regulatory forbearance and perhaps business will get the message.
此类监管宽容的例子还有很多，相信这些案例会给商业界一些启示。