【雙語(yǔ)閱讀】美國(guó)快捷藥方公司與美可保健.

　　簡(jiǎn)介：花了八個(gè)多月的時(shí)間，會(huì)面達(dá)到200多次。 但是4月2日，美國(guó)聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)以三比一的投票決定同意美國(guó)快捷藥方公司收購(gòu)美可保健。 兩家公司合并后將成為美國(guó)第二大藥品公司以及最大的藥品福利管理者。 這兩家公司的合并可能最終改變美國(guó)人購(gòu)買藥物的方式。

　　Business

　　Express Scripts and Medco

　　Bigger means cheaper

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

　　IT TOOK eight months and more than 200 interviews. But on April 2nd America&aposs Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided, in a three-to-one vote, to let Express Scripts acquire Medco. The two firms are America&aposs second-biggest and biggest pharmacy-benit managers. Eventually, they may change the way Americans take drugs.

　　Despite an intolerably dull title, pharmacy-benit managers (PBMs) are important. America is the world&aposs biggest drug market; in 2010 it spent more than $307 billion on prescription medicines. 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.

　　Express Scripts announced the acquisition in July 2011. Medco was a good company that had had a bad year, and so looked cheap. It had lost about 30% of its business in a few months as some of its largest clients ended their contracts. For both firms, bigger ought to mean better. With scale would come the power to negotiate fatter discounts on drugs, lowering costs for employers and insurers.

　　Pharmacists felt sick when they heard the news. PBMs encourage consumers to fill their prescriptions through the mail instead of going to a costly pharmacy. PBMs, pharmacists fret, will crush their fees for dispensing drugs. Worse, PBMs will demand that drugmakers give them exclusive deals for new, complex medicines. Competitors and consumers will suffer, the pharmacists argue.

　　The FTC disagreed. The merged firm is unlikely to squeeze pharmacies&apos fees for dispensing drugs, it ruled. There remain plenty of lively, smaller PBMs. John Kreger of William Blair, an investment bank, says there is enough turmoil—thanks both to the merger and to Express Scripts&apos continuing fight with Walgreens, a big pharmacy—that smaller PBMs may snatch new business in the next year. The small fry may also benit if the pharmacy lobby&aposs lawsuit against the merger moves forward.

　　The combined firm will have $91 billion in revenue in 2012, estimates Lawrence Marsh, an analyst at Barclays Capital. It is so big that it could shape a new era for America&aposs drug market. As more drugs lose their patents, consumers will increasingly fill their prescriptions with generics. If Express Scripts has its way, they will also fill their prescriptions by post. Medco recently acquired a firm that compares the ficacy of different drugs. This may prove usul when America begins to see cheap copies of complex drugs, called biosimilars, which will be tested against the originals. The new Express Scripts may also play a role on Barack Obama&aposs new insurance exchanges, working with insurers to court individuals shopping for health care.

　　Most intriguingly, the new Express Scripts could push Americans to buy the right medicines and take them at the right time. For years PBMs have tested ways to urge consumers to buy cheaper, fective drugs. For example, if a patient wants a branded pill rather than a generic, he must pay for more of it himself. Experiments will probably scale up and become more sophisticated. Eventually, they might even spread to Medicaid, the public programme for the poor. Health rorm (unless the Supreme Court strikes it down) will add 16m new members to Medicaid by 2019, a 27% jump. PBMs such as Medco and Express Scripts have so far spent little time chasing the Medicaid market. That may change.

　　【中文對(duì)照翻譯】

　　商業(yè)

　　美國(guó)快捷藥方公司與美可保健

　　越大越便宜

　　全新的藥物管理者可能改變美國(guó)人購(gòu)買藥品的方式

　　花了八個(gè)多月的時(shí)間，會(huì)面達(dá)到200多次。 但是4月2日，美國(guó)聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)以三比一的投票決定同意美國(guó)快捷藥方公司收購(gòu)美可保健。 兩家公司合并后將成為美國(guó)第二大藥品公司以及最大的藥品福利管理者。 這兩家公司的合并可能最終改變美國(guó)人購(gòu)買藥物的方式。

　　盡管標(biāo)題無(wú)聊的令人無(wú)法忍受，但是藥品福利管理者(PBMs)十分重要。 美國(guó)是世界上最大的藥品市場(chǎng);2010年美國(guó)在處方藥上的花費(fèi)達(dá)到3070億美元。 藥品福利管理是是平衡雇主和保險(xiǎn)公司之間醫(yī)藥費(fèi)用的中間人， 快捷藥方公司與美可保健一起將能控制40%以上的藥品市場(chǎng)份額。

　　快捷藥方公司曾宣布在2011年7月完成收購(gòu)工作， 美可保健去年情況不佳，看起來(lái)有點(diǎn)貶值，但美可保健是一個(gè)業(yè)績(jī)不錯(cuò)的公司。 由于一些大客戶終止了合同，美可保健幾個(gè)月內(nèi)就損失了30%的生意。 對(duì)兩家公司來(lái)說(shuō)，擴(kuò)大經(jīng)營(yíng)必須意味著良好的收益。 大規(guī)模將在藥品折扣問題的商討上占有更大的優(yōu)勢(shì)，并降低雇傭者和保險(xiǎn)公司的成本。

　　聽說(shuō)了這個(gè)消息之后藥劑師感覺并不好。 藥品福利管理者鼓勵(lì)消費(fèi)者通過郵件方式而不是通過花費(fèi)過高的藥品公司購(gòu)買藥物。 藥品福利管理者讓藥劑師們很頭痛，藥品福利管理者會(huì)把削減開處方藥的費(fèi)用。 更糟糕的是，藥品福利管理者要求藥品制造上對(duì)于新藥和合成藥給與特別的折扣。 藥劑師認(rèn)為競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者和消費(fèi)者都會(huì)遭受損失。

　　聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)并不這么認(rèn)為。 合并后的公司不可能壓榨藥劑師配置藥物的費(fèi)用，只是對(duì)此收費(fèi)進(jìn)行規(guī)范。 市場(chǎng)中還有很多小規(guī)?；钴S的藥品福利管理者。 投資銀行William Blair的John Kreger說(shuō)已經(jīng)夠亂了——多虧兩家公司的合并，還有快捷藥方公司與大型的醫(yī)藥公司W(wǎng)algreens不斷的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)——小規(guī)模的藥品福利管理者明年會(huì)搶走新業(yè)務(wù)。 如果反對(duì)合并進(jìn)程的藥品游說(shuō)訴訟能夠成功的話，小公司也能從中獲益。

　　據(jù)巴萊克集團(tuán)的分析師Lawrence Marsh預(yù)測(cè)，合并后的公司在2012年的收益能夠達(dá)到910億美元。 收益如此巨大以至于可以塑造美國(guó)藥品市場(chǎng)的新紀(jì)元。 由于越來(lái)越多的藥品不再擁有專利權(quán)，越來(lái)越多的消費(fèi)者都會(huì)使用非專利藥物開具處方。 如果快捷藥品公司也采用此方法，那么他們也會(huì)采取郵寄方式開藥方。 美可保健最近收購(gòu)了一家比較藥品不同功效的公司。 美國(guó)開始看到合成藥劑的復(fù)制品，即生物仿制藥，價(jià)格低廉，能用來(lái)與源藥品做對(duì)比試驗(yàn)。此時(shí)上述收購(gòu)還是極為有益的。 新的快捷藥方公司同樣在奧巴馬提出的新型保險(xiǎn)交易中扮演了重要角色，他和保險(xiǎn)代理人一起勸說(shuō)個(gè)人購(gòu)買健康保險(xiǎn)。

　　最有趣的是新的快捷藥方公司可以推動(dòng)美國(guó)人在正確的時(shí)間購(gòu)買正確的藥物。 幾年來(lái)，藥品福利管理者嘗試新的方法以促使消費(fèi)者購(gòu)買便宜而有效的藥物， 例如如果病人想購(gòu)買品牌藥物而非一般藥物，他要為多出的費(fèi)用自己掏腰包。 這樣的試驗(yàn)將逐步擴(kuò)大規(guī)模，也會(huì)越來(lái)越復(fù)雜。 最終將波及醫(yī)療補(bǔ)助計(jì)劃，該計(jì)劃是救助窮人的公共計(jì)劃。 到2019年，健康改革(除非最高法院將其駁回)將增加160萬(wàn)名新的受益者，約增長(zhǎng)了27%。 像美可保健和快捷藥方公司這樣的藥品福利管理者迄今為止在醫(yī)療補(bǔ)助計(jì)劃投入的時(shí)間還不多。 這種情況可能會(huì)有所改變。

　　簡(jiǎn)介：花了八個(gè)多月的時(shí)間，會(huì)面達(dá)到200多次。 但是4月2日，美國(guó)聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)以三比一的投票決定同意美國(guó)快捷藥方公司收購(gòu)美可保健。 兩家公司合并后將成為美國(guó)第二大藥品公司以及最大的藥品福利管理者。 這兩家公司的合并可能最終改變美國(guó)人購(gòu)買藥物的方式。

　　Business

　　Express Scripts and Medco

　　Bigger means cheaper

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

　　IT TOOK eight months and more than 200 interviews. But on April 2nd America&aposs Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided, in a three-to-one vote, to let Express Scripts acquire Medco. The two firms are America&aposs second-biggest and biggest pharmacy-benit managers. Eventually, they may change the way Americans take drugs.

　　Despite an intolerably dull title, pharmacy-benit managers (PBMs) are important. America is the world&aposs biggest drug market; in 2010 it spent more than $307 billion on prescription medicines. 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.

　　Express Scripts announced the acquisition in July 2011. Medco was a good company that had had a bad year, and so looked cheap. It had lost about 30% of its business in a few months as some of its largest clients ended their contracts. For both firms, bigger ought to mean better. With scale would come the power to negotiate fatter discounts on drugs, lowering costs for employers and insurers.

　　Pharmacists felt sick when they heard the news. PBMs encourage consumers to fill their prescriptions through the mail instead of going to a costly pharmacy. PBMs, pharmacists fret, will crush their fees for dispensing drugs. Worse, PBMs will demand that drugmakers give them exclusive deals for new, complex medicines. Competitors and consumers will suffer, the pharmacists argue.

　　The FTC disagreed. The merged firm is unlikely to squeeze pharmacies&apos fees for dispensing drugs, it ruled. There remain plenty of lively, smaller PBMs. John Kreger of William Blair, an investment bank, says there is enough turmoil—thanks both to the merger and to Express Scripts&apos continuing fight with Walgreens, a big pharmacy—that smaller PBMs may snatch new business in the next year. The small fry may also benit if the pharmacy lobby&aposs lawsuit against the merger moves forward.

　　The combined firm will have $91 billion in revenue in 2012, estimates Lawrence Marsh, an analyst at Barclays Capital. It is so big that it could shape a new era for America&aposs drug market. As more drugs lose their patents, consumers will increasingly fill their prescriptions with generics. If Express Scripts has its way, they will also fill their prescriptions by post. Medco recently acquired a firm that compares the ficacy of different drugs. This may prove usul when America begins to see cheap copies of complex drugs, called biosimilars, which will be tested against the originals. The new Express Scripts may also play a role on Barack Obama&aposs new insurance exchanges, working with insurers to court individuals shopping for health care.

　　Most intriguingly, the new Express Scripts could push Americans to buy the right medicines and take them at the right time. For years PBMs have tested ways to urge consumers to buy cheaper, fective drugs. For example, if a patient wants a branded pill rather than a generic, he must pay for more of it himself. Experiments will probably scale up and become more sophisticated. Eventually, they might even spread to Medicaid, the public programme for the poor. Health rorm (unless the Supreme Court strikes it down) will add 16m new members to Medicaid by 2019, a 27% jump. PBMs such as Medco and Express Scripts have so far spent little time chasing the Medicaid market. That may change.

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