经济学人下载:美国研发战略 医学受阻

Science and technology
科学技术

R D in America
美国研发战略

Bad medicine
医学受阻

Cutting American health research will harm the world
美国削减医药研究经费，影响波及整个地球

BARACK OBAMA, in his state-of-the-union speech on February 12th, called for a new era of scientific discovery.
2月12日，巴拉克·奥巴马在国情咨文演讲中号召人民开启科研成果新纪元。

Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the space race, he declared.
他宣布:自太空竞赛取胜以来，我们始终未能将科技研发推向一个新高度，现在是时候了。

He praised projects to map the human brain and accelerate regenerative medicine.
他还表扬了大脑活动图谱绘制工程和再生医学提速项目。

This would mean spending more on research.
这意味着他打算在科研上投入更多的经费。

As The Economist went to press, America's government was about to do the opposite.
本期《经济学人》付印时，美国政府正欲背道而驰。

Federal spending is due to be cut on March 1st, the result of a long brawl over the deficit.
赤字当前，各政客长期意见不合，导致联邦自动减支于3月1日强制启动。

Complex politics triggered this sequester but the sequester itself is brutally simple.
政局复杂导致了财政封存，但是财政封存却简单得要命。

America will cut 85 billion from this year's budget, split between military and non-military programmes.
美国将在本年度预算中削减850亿美元，由军事开支和非军事开支共同分担。

Among the areas to be squeezed is R&D, and medical research in particular.
研发项目开支也将被削减，而医学研究首当其冲。

For years America has enjoyed pre-eminence in research, but this is fading.
美国历年都在科研方面独占鳌头，但现在她龙头的光环越来越小。

Chinese investment more than quintupled from 2000 to 2010, to 160 billion, in 2005 prices.
以2005年价格核算，2010年中国的研发投资是2000年的5倍多，达1600亿美元；

America's RD spending rose by just 22% over that period, according to the OECD.
而据经济合作与发展组织称，同期美国只增加了22%。

Research also makes up a smaller portion of America's economy than some other countries'.
同时，研究经费在美国经济中所占的比例比其他一些国家都要小。

In a ranking of RD spending as a share of GDP, America came tenth in 2011.A decade earlier it was sixth.
在2011年研发开支占GDP比例上，美国排名第十，而十年前，美国位居第六。

Nevertheless, America remains the world's biggest engine for innovation.
然而，美国仍然是全球最大的创新引擎。

It spent 366 billion on research in 2011, compared with 275 billion by all 27 countries of the European Union.
2011年，美国在科研上投入了3660亿美元，而27个欧盟国家的总投入仅有2750亿美元。

Despite China's rapid ascent, America still spends more than twice as much on R&D. Subsidies help.
虽然中国涨势迅猛，美国在研发上的开支仍比中国高出1倍以上。

America's government pays for about one-third of all domestic research and for most basic science.
这少不了补贴的功劳。美国政府承担国内三分之一左右的研究经费及多数基础科学费用。

Medicine is one of the main beneficiaries.
医学研究成了补贴的主要受益对象。

America's National Institutes of Health is the world's biggest funder of biomedical research.
美国国家卫生研究所是世界最大的生物医学研究投资方。

It pays for risky basic science; companies pay for later stages of development.
对于成功率较低的基础科学，开始阶段的研究由研究会买单，而后阶段的开发则由各大公司支付。

For example, the NIH supported early research into monoclonal antibodies.
比如，NIH支付了单克隆抗体早期的研发费用。

By 2010 such research underpinned five of America's 20 bestselling drugs.
截至2010年，美国最畅销的20种药物中，有5种来自于这种方式。

As drug firms trim their budgets, the NIH's work is becoming even more vital.
药物公司的预算减少，NIH的作用就更加重要了。

But since 2003, inflation-adjusted spending on medical research has declined.
然而，由于通胀所迫，医学研究经费自2003年起也有所下降。

With the sequester public investment will shrink further.
由于财政封存，国家投资将进一步减少。

America's total outlay on RD will drop by 8.7 billion this year, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
据美国科学发展协会称，今年美国在研发上的总支出会减少87亿美元。

Francis Collins, the NIH's director, says that his organisation will spend 1.6 billion less in 2013—a cut of 5.1%—and 16 billion less over the next decade.
NIH所长弗朗西斯?柯林斯说，今年，NIH的开支也会缩减16亿美元，减少约5.1%。在未来十年内，将减少160亿美元；

Hundreds of grants will not be awarded.
数百项项目经费也将取消。

Existing grantees will receive only 90% of the cash promised to them.
已申请成功的人士也只能拿到约定经费总额的九成。

These cuts will speed the erosion of American supremacy in research.
美国在研究领域的龙头地位已经不保，以上各项开支削减进一步加快了其下滑速度。

In December Battelle, a research group, predicted that China would surpass America's spending by 2023.
去年12月，巴特尔研究中心预测，中国的科研经费将在2023年赶超美国。

Thanks to the sequester, that date may come earlier.
拜财政封存所赐，这天将来得更早了。

But the real problem is absolute, not relative, and affects the whole world, not just America.
然而，真正的问题在于，美国不仅会在研发开支排名上下滑，也无疑将在研发进展上落后。这不仅会减缓美国发展，且影响会波及全世界。

RD is a rare type of public spending that stimulates growth.
能刺激经济增长的国家投资不多，研发就是其中之一。

Knowledge is cumulative, easy to share and generates benefits that spill rapidly across borders.
知识是可积累的，便于分享，而且还可以带来效益、造福各界。

Dr Collins says that cuts to the NIH will slow work on Alzheimer's disease, a universal flu vaccine and cancer therapies, to name just a few.
柯林斯博士说，削减NIH支出，会减缓多种研究的进程，比如老年痴呆症、通用流感疫苗和抗癌疗法。