经济学人下载:医药公司和癌症 利润丰厚的救星

Business
商业报道

Drug firms and cancer
医药公司和癌症

Lucrative lifesavers
利润丰厚的救星

The hopes and perils of betting on cancer treatments
癌症治疗的希望和风险

NEW weapons are emerging in the war on cancer.
在对癌症的战争中不断有新武器出现。

That is good news not just for patients but also for drug companies.
这不仅对病人是好消息，对制药公司也是好消息。

The biggest ones, faced with falling sales as their existing medicines go off-patent, are investing in smaller firms with promising cancer treatments under development, hoping to secure the next blockbuster.
最先有药物面临着销售下滑，失去专利保护，最重要的是投资于正在开发有前途的癌症治疗方法的小公司来确保拥有下一个重磅炸弹。

On August 25th Amgen, the world's biggest biotechnology company by sales, said it would pay $10.4 billion for another American firm, Onyx.
8月25日世界上最大的生物技术公司安进表示，它将支付104亿美元收购Onyx公司。

The target firm's crown jewel is Kyprolis, a treatment for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.
该公司拥有的药物Kyprolis能治疗多发性骨髓瘤，一种类型的血癌。

The next day AstraZeneca, a British drugs firm, said it would snap up Amplimmune, an American firm working on ways to trigger the immune system to fight cancer.
第二天，英国制药公司阿斯利康称将抢购Amplimmune公司，美国一家试图通过激活免疫系统来治疗癌症的公司。

Oncology is attractive for several reasons.
肿瘤学有吸引力是因为以下几个原因。

First, the understanding of cancer is evolving rapidly.
首先，对癌症的了解在不断加快。

In the 20th century treatment relied on surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
在20世纪对癌症的治疗依赖于手术，放疗和化疗。

These now seem rudimentary.
现在这些都成了最基本的手段。

Immunotherapy—getting the immune system to attack cancer—has gone from theory into practice.
用免疫系统攻击癌细胞已经从理论进入实践。

Genomics has helped scientists target specific mutations that promote cancer.
基因组学帮助科学家通过特定的基因突变锁定促使癌症发生的基因。

Another area of excitement for cancer researchers is epigenetics, which alters how a gene acts without meddling with the sequence of DNA.
表观遗传学是癌症研究的另一个令人兴奋的领域，在不改变基因序列的前提下改变基因的表达。

Second, regulators have speeded up their approval of cancer drugs.
其次，监管机构已经在加快对抗癌药物的市场准入。

Of the 39 medicines approved by America's Food and Drug Administration in 2012, 11 were for cancer.
在2012年由美国食品和药物管理局批准的39种药品中，有11种用于治疗癌症。

These included Kyprolis, which was granted accelerated approval, based on a smaller clinical trial than usual, for use as a last-ditch treatment for patients with multiple myeloma.
其中包括Kyprolis，在只进行了小规模的临床试验的基础上加速审批通过，用于多发性骨髓瘤患者治疗的最后一道防线。

Third, and most controversial, cancer drugs can fetch exorbitant prices, particularly in America.
第三，也是最有争议的，治疗癌症的药物可以卖高昂的价格，特别是在美国。

The idea is that there's nothing else available, so you can ask for a high price, explains Howard Liang of Leerink Swann, an investment bank.
美国医疗保健投资银行的霍华德梁解释说：我们的想法是，因为没有别的可用，所以我们可以卖很高的价格。

A typical course of treatment with Kyprolis lasting, say, five months, can cost around $50,000.
使用Kyprolis治疗一个疗程，也就是5个月，花费大约5万美元。

Little surprise, then, that big drugmakers are keen to develop their own cancer drugs, form partnerships with smaller firms that have promising treatments in the pipeline, and buy such companies outright.
有个小惊喜就是大制药公司都热衷于开发自己的抗癌药物，与在治疗过程中能提高治疗效果的小公司形成合作关系，也直接收购这种小公司。

Kyprolis was first developed by a small firm called Proteolix, which was bought by Onyx, now acquired by Amgen.
首先Kyprolis是由一个叫 Proteolix的小公司开发的，被Onyx收购，现在又被Amgen收购。

In 2009 Bristol-Myers Squibb, an American drug giant, paid $2.4 billion for Medarex, which had an experimental immunotherapy drug.
美国制药业巨头施贵宝，2009年斥资24亿美元收购了拥有免疫治疗药物的Medarex公司。

That drug, for melanoma, is now sold in America for $120,000 for a full course of treatment.
该药物对黑色素瘤，现在在美国一个完整的疗程需要12万美元。

There are risks, however.
风险还是有的。

Even a drug seemingly destined for fame and fortune can fall flat.
即使药物名利似乎注定落空。

The FDA has approved Kyprolis only for patients who have already tried at least two other treatments.
批准Kyprolis，只适用于那些已经尝试过至少两个其他治疗方法的患者。

Its annual sales could reach $3 billion, reckons Goldman Sachs.
高盛估计其年销售额能达到30亿美元。

But that requires approval beyond America, and data showing that Kyprolis is worth giving to earlier-stage patients.
但是这还需要美国以外的批准，并且要有数据能够证明Kyprolis也可以应用于早期患者。

AstraZeneca is buying Amplimmune largely for two cancer drugs still in early testing.
阿斯利康购买Amplimmune主要是两种抗癌药物目前仍处于早期测试。

If you are not willing to take risks, you cannot be in this area, says Bahija Jallal, an executive at AstraZeneca.
如果你不愿意承担风险，你就不会出现在这个领域，阿斯利康的一个管理人员Bahija Jallal说。

The biggest question in the long term is whether health insurers and governments will keep paying up.
长期来看最大的问题是医疗保险公司和政府是否会继续支持。

Onyx and Bayer, a German firm, share the profits of Nexavar, a kidney-cancer drug.
德国拜耳公司和Onyx共享肾癌药物多吉美的利润。

Last year Indian regulators granted a local firm a compulsory licence to sell Nexavar copies for a fraction of Bayer's price.
去年印度的监管机构强制许可授予当地一家小公司销售多吉美的仿制药，价格只是拜耳的一小部分。

The response elsewhere is less extreme.
其他地方的响应却不那么极端。

But companies face new scrutiny over their prices, particularly in Europe.
但是，公司在欧洲面临新的价格审查。

In April more than 100 experts in chronic myeloid leukaemia signed a paper to protest against the high cost of drugs.
4月100多名在慢性髓性白血病方面的专家签署了一份抗议药物成本过高的声明。

For now, however, Amgen should be able to continue charging handsomely for Kyprolis.
但就目前而言，安进能够从Kyprolis获得丰厚的利润。