经济学人下载:抗生素生产商的困境(1)

Getting hold of penicillin in 1943 was a lottery in America.
1943年，在美国想要获得青霉素简直就得碰运气。

The "miracle drug" had been discovered 15 years earlier but production capacity was limited, and most went to the war effort.
这种“特效药”早在15年前就被发现了，但生产力有限且大部分都投入了战争。

What remained was rationed, and a single injection cost at least $40 (about $600 in today's prices).
剩下的都是定量配给，注射一支青霉素至少要40美元（约为现在的600美元）。

By 1949 better manufacturing methods allowed the price to fall to 20 cents. The use of penicillin exploded.
到1949年，更好的生产方法让价格降到了20美分。青霉素的使用激增。

Antibiotics subsequently became a staple of modern medicine. Massive volumes offset low margins. No longer.
随后，抗生素变成了现代医学的主要部分。巨大的销量抵消了利润率较低的影响。

Finding new molecules is getting harder, which means higher development costs.
发现新分子变得越来越难，这意味着开发成本更高了。

At the same time, growing awareness that overuse accelerates development of bacterial resistance to the drugs has led to "antibiotics stewardship",
与此同时，越来越多的人意识到了过渡使用抗生素加速了细菌对药物的抗药性，这就导致了“抗生素管理”，

the practice of using the newest antibiotics only for infections untreatable with older ones.
只用最新抗生素治疗旧抗生素无法治愈的感染。

Volumes, in other words, are often disappointing. With returns from antibiotics down,
换而言之，销量经常让人失望。随着抗生素回报下降，

big pharmaceutical companies have abandoned them for more lucrative drugs.
大型制药公司为了更赚钱的药物而放弃了它们。

GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Merck are the only three doing clinical research in the field.
葛兰素史克、辉瑞和默克是该领域仅有的三家做临床研究的公司。

Small biotechnology firms tried to pick up the slack. In the past ten years,
小型生物科技公司试图弥补空白。在过去的十年里，

as the world began to panic about the rise of resistant superbugs, governments and charities provided early-stage financing.
世界开始对耐药性超级细菌的崛起感到恐慌，政府和慈善机构提供了初期融资。

Like big pharma, though, the biotech startups have struggled to make money from antibiotics.
虽然和大型制药公司一样，生物科技创业公司也难以从抗生素中赚钱。

An American one, Achaogen, filed for bankruptcy on April 15th; plazomicin, a novel antibiotic it began selling in 2018,
4月15日，一家美国公司Achaogen申请破产；该公司在2018年开始销售一种新型抗生素—plazomicin，

sold barely any doses in the first eight months. Melinta, another antibiotics startup, is restructuring.
头八个月几乎没有卖出过任何剂量。另一家抗生素创业公司Melinta正在重组。

Share prices of similar firms have plunged, in some cases below their liquidation value.
类似公司的股价暴跌，一些甚至低于清算价值。