2015考研英语阅读药品研究

　　Drug research

　　药品研究

　　All together now

　　大家齐心协力

　　Charities help Big Pharma

　　慈善机构协助大型制药公司

　　IT WAS once only drug firms that developed drugs. But this is changing. Take the case of theMichael J. Fox Foundation, a Parkinson s disease charity. On April 19th it announced that itwould pay for a clinical trial of a drug developed by Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant,that might treat the mental symptoms of the disease.

　　过去只有制药公司才开发药品，但这种情况正在改变。就拿Michael J. Fox基金会，一个帕金森病的慈善机构来说。此机构在4月19号宣布他们将为赛诺菲，法国的制药巨头，所研发的一种药物的临床试验买单，此药有可能用于治疗帕金森病的精神症状。

　　The deal is the latest sign of a broader shiftone that is driven by desperation. Patents onblockbuster drugs are expiring. Research and development have grown lessproductive, with billions of dollars yielding only a trickle of drugs.

　　这笔交易是产业萎靡所触发的转变的最新迹象。重磅药品的专利已开始失效。药品研发部门已不再那么多产，数十亿美金的投入只换来少许药品的诞生。

　　Some blame stringent regulators. Others grumble that big pharma firms are toobureaucratic. All agree that developing a new drug takes money andtime . Whatever the cause, a shortfall in R D has inspireda flood of new partnerships.

　　有些人将此归咎于严苛的监管部门，另一些人则认为大型制药公司太过官僚化。一个公认的事实是药物的开发是需要大量金钱和时间的。无论原因如何，研发部门的低产给众多新合作关系的诞生以灵感。

　　Charities have been particularly bold. Companies, beholden to shareholders, are loth to dothings that might lose them money. Charities, by contrast, exist to give the stuff away. Theleading venture philanthropist is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It has supported earlyresearch and clinical trials, small biotech firms and the biggest of Big Pharma companies,Pfizer. The foundation spent $75m on early research for Kalydeco, which in January becamethe first approved drug to target the mutated gene that causes cystic fibrosis. Kalydeco isowned by Vertex, a firm based in Massachusetts, but the foundation will get royalties fromthe drug s sales, which will then support further research. Other charities have followed theCystic Fibrosis Foundation s lead. The Fox Foundation, for example, has spent $289m onresearch.

　　慈善机构的参与尤其令人关注。受惠于股东的公司们的不作为可能会断送他们的资金来源。慈善机构，却相反，生来就是乐于施舍。囊肿性纤维化慈善基金是风险慈善的领头羊。此基金已对药物的早期研究，临床试验，小型生物科技公司和最大的生物制药公司辉瑞给予资助。并且，投资7千5百万美金进行Kalydeco 的早期研究，Kalydeco在一月份成为第一个针对导致囊性纤维变性的突变基因的药物，它是位于马萨诸塞州的Vertex公司的产品，此公司会从药品的销售额中给投资的慈善基金一定的分成，这又将会被投资于药品的进一步研究。其他的慈善基金也纷纷效仿Cystic Fibrosis。就如Fox慈善基金已在药物研究上投资了2.89亿美金。