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Business
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Pharmaceuticals
药物
Give, and it shall be given unto you
赠人玫瑰手有余香
Drug companies in Japan invest in curing diseases of the poor
日本药品公司投资为穷人治病
JAPAN's pharmaceutical firms are an inventive bunch: only the American and British drugs industries produced more new medicines between 2005 and 2008.
日本制药企业是充满创造力的工厂，在2005到2008年中，只有美国与英国的制药工业研发的新药比日本多。
But their record on healing the diseases of the poor is not so good.
不过他们在治疗穷人上表现欠佳。
The Access to Medicine Foundation, a non-profit group, tracks drug firms' efforts to serve patients in developing countries; and in its ranking of the 20 biggest ones, Japanese firms occupy four of the bottom six rungs.
非盈利组织The Access to Medicine Foundation记录了制药公司在救助发展中国家病人上的表现。在20所最大的制药公司中，日本公司在最后6位中排名第四。
That may change. On November 8th the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund announced its first grants, to advance treatments for malaria, tuberculosis and Chagas disease, a potentially fatal and frequently debilitating ailment spread by ghastly, bloodsucking “kissing bugs”.
但这数字有可能改变：11月8号，全球健康革新科技基金宣布它的首笔用于改进疟疾、肺结核和锥虫病的治疗手手段的拨款。
The fund, launched earlier this year, is a public-private partnership that includes five Japanese drugmakers: Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, Shionogi and Takeda.
这基金成立于今年早些时候，是由5家公私合营的日本制药企业组成的，成员为Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, Shionogi and Takeda。
Criticism of pharma companies for restricting low-income countries' access to drugs reached a head at the turn of the millennium, when makers of life-saving HIV treatments refused to provide them at affordable prices to patients in Africa.
在千年之交制药厂限制低收入国家购买药物途径，那时HIV治疗品制药厂拒绝以合理的价格将药品卖给非洲病人。
The resulting outrage forced the drug firms to rethink their policies.
这一行为遭到指责。而这一引起公愤的结果迫使制药公司重新思考他们的政策。
Today most of the biggest ones tout themselves as allies in the fight against infectious disease.
现在大多数大型制药公司作为联盟联合起来与传染疾病作斗争。
In some cases this means donating medicines, or licensing technology to makers of generic drugs.
某些情况下这意味着捐药或者下放技术给一般药物厂。
In others it means collaborating to develop a new vaccine or treatment.
或者意味着合作开发新疫苗和治疗方式。
For example, GlaxoSmithKline, a British firm that tops the Access to Medicine Foundation's index, will next year seek regulatory approval for a malaria vaccine.
例如GlaxoSmithKline一家英国制药厂将会在明年寻找疟疾疫苗的调整方法。
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped to finance its development.
比尔盖茨夫妇基金将会投资这一研发。
With the GHIT Fund, the five Japanese firms are trying a slightly different model.
这5家日本企业希望用GHIT基金来发展一个有所不同的模式。
Each will put in 1m a year for five years.
在5年中，每家公司每年会投100万美金。
Together with investments from the Gates Foundation and Japan's government, the fund will add up to more than 100m.
加上来自盖茨基金和政府投资，这一基金将会有超过1亿美金的资金。
This will be doled out to partnerships between Japanese and foreign institutions.
这会少量的发放给日本和外国研究所。
For instance, researchers at Osaka University and Gulu University in Uganda will get 735,000 to improve the effectiveness of another proposed malaria vaccine.
马上，Osaka大学和乌干达Gulu大学的研究者就会获得735,000用于提高另一种疟疾疫苗的效率。
An important question for the fund, as with any similar endeavour, is how much the resulting new treatments will cost.
对于这个基金来说一个重要的问题就是在同等努力下研发新治疗方法要花多少。
GSK plans to sell its malaria vaccine at 5% above the cost of production, with proceeds pumped back into research for infectious diseases.
GSK计划以生产价的105%来出售他的疟疾疫苗，作为研究传染性疾病的后续资金。
Even so, some advocates worry it will still be too expensive.
即使这样，一些支持者担心定价仍有点高。
B.T. Slingsby, a former Eisai executive who now runs the GHIT Fund, says that drugs developed in its research programmes will be licensed without royalties in the poorest countries.
之前B.T. Slingsby Eisai的总经理，现在GHIT的经营者说这个项目研发的药品在那些贫穷国家中被免版税使用。
In other markets, the fund will aim more or less to break even.
在其他市场中该基金则希望或多或少的打破平衡。
The companies' beneficence may reap long-term rewards, however.
但是公司的利益可能是长期回报。
For some time they have been seeking to expand their presence beyond Japan's shores.
有时他们在寻求途径希望自己的定位不仅仅是日本企业。
In 2011 Takeda bought Nycomed, a Swiss drugmaker, for about 14 billion.
2011年Takeda以140亿美金的价格买下了瑞士制药厂Nycomed。
In 2008 Daiichi Sankyo spent nearly 5 billion on Ranbaxy, an Indian drugmaker that has since been plagued by safety issues.
2008年Daiichi Sankyo投资近50亿在Ranbaxy。这是一家因为安全问题惹上麻烦的印度制药公司。
The GHIT Fund will be a far smaller, and less controversial, investment.
GHIT基金会成为缩小规模减少争议的组织。
But it will help the firms build links with prestigious research institutions in America and Europe, and eventually introduce Japanese drug brands to patients, and health ministries, in emerging markets.
但他会帮助公司与欧美知名研究机构建立联系，并最终让新兴市场的病人和卫生部知道日本品牌。
Aid now may lead to profit later.
然后或许就可以创造利益。
