《经济学人》双语｜《为了血与钱》书评：特效药研发过程中的血雨腥风

原文标题：
Medical research
Health is wealth
A front-row seat for the race to develop a blockbuster drug
医学研究
健康就是财富
前排观看特效药研发竞赛

“For Blood and Money” charts a race to develop a blockbuster drug
Nathan Vardi’s book brings to life a contest between two pharmaceutical firms
《为了血与钱》讲述了一场研发特效药的竞赛
内森·瓦尔迪的书把两家制药公司之间的竞争故事描绘得很生动

[Paragraph 1]
FEW SCIENTIFIC endeavours are more lucrative than developing a blockbuster drug—or a blockbuster vaccine.

成功开发一种特效药物或特效疫苗可以赚得盆满钵满，没有什么科学研究能与之媲美。

Lipitor, Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering medication, is reputed to have made the company more than $160bn.

据称降胆固醇药物“立普妥”为辉瑞公司带来了1600多亿美元的收入。

Advair, an asthma drug, has earned tens of billions of dollars for GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline).

哮喘药物“舒利迭”为葛兰素史克公司赚了数百亿美元。

And BioNTech, a firm few people had heard of before the covid-19 pandemic, has made billions from its mRNA vaccine.
新冠之前很少有人听说过“必恩泰”公司，而mRNA疫苗为该公司赚了数十亿美元。

[Paragraph 2]
Naturally, pharmaceutical companies—and, these days, venture capitalists and hedge funds—are always searching for the next wonder drug.
顺理成章地，制药公司--以及近期的风险投资家和对冲基金--一直在寻找下一个特效药。

Nathan Vardi’s new book is a fascinating look at the quest to develop a new drug for blood cancer that targets only cancerous cells and not the healthy kind.
内森·瓦尔迪的新书对此进行探究：研发一种仅针对癌细胞而非健康细胞的抗血癌新药。

[Paragraph 3]
“For Blood and Money” follows two small biotech firms in California, Pharmacyclics and Acerta Pharma, as they try to capture the market for a drug to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
《为了血液与金钱》讲述了加州两家小型生物技术公司Pharmacyclics和Acerta Pharma的故事，他们都在争抢治疗慢性淋巴细胞白血病（一种血液和骨髓癌）的药物市场。

The technique involves inhibiting the activity of Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK), an enzyme that regulates chemical signals inside some white blood cells.
药物可以抑制布鲁顿酪氨酸激酶（BTK）的活性，BTK是一种可以调节某些白细胞内化学信号的酶。

Mr Vardi explains the science behind BTK inhibitors and shows how they became an attractive tool for cancer treatment.
瓦尔迪先生解释了BTK抑制剂背后的科学原理，并展示了癌症治疗工具是如何炼成的。

[Paragraph 4]
The corporate drama begins with Pharmacyclics. The author introduces Bob Duggan, a successful entrepreneur who invests in the company, quickly wrests control from its founder and becomes CEO.
这部商战剧从Pharmacyclics公司开始。作者介绍了一位名叫鲍勃·达根的成功企业家，他对这家公司进行了投资后迅速从创始人手中夺回了控制权，成为了该公司CEO。

Mr Duggan sacks a couple of key employees, who wind up at another biotech startup, Acerta. There they try to develop a rival drug that is also based on a BTK inhibitor. The race is on.
达根先生解雇了几名关键员工，这些员工最终入职了另一家生物技术初创公司Acerta。他们在Acerta公司努力研发一种同样基于BTK抑制剂的竞争药物。于是，商业竞赛开始了。

[Paragraph 5]
The technicolour cast of characters includes medical researchers, doctors, scientologists and New York financiers.
商战剧有各种各样的角色，包括医学研究人员、医生、山达基教徒、纽约金融家。

Readers become acquainted with their personal ambitions, egos and quirks, and the intrigue and politics of their rivalries.
读者会熟悉他们的个人志向、自负和怪癖，以及竞争对手们的阴谋和政治手段。

Mr Vardi also lays out the slow, complicated process for the approval of drugs in America, overseen by the Food and Drug Administration, and the cold calculations of big pharmaceutical firms as they assess whether to invest in a new product.
瓦尔迪先生还阐明了两件事：美国食品与药物管理局监督下药品审批过程中的繁文缛节，以及大型制药公司在评估是否投资新产品时的冷计算。

In the middle of it all are the patients, often elderly and desperate for a cure.
病人是竞赛的核心部分，他们往往是年纪大、渴望得到治愈的病人。

[Paragraph 6]
A financial journalist, Mr Vardi knows the world of venture capital intimately, and is at his strongest when writing about the financial aspects of deals.
瓦尔迪先生是一名财经记者，非常了解风投领域，因此他最擅长撰写交易与财务方面的文章。

He delves into his characters’ backgrounds and recreates meetings and events in detail; the contest between Pharmacyclics and Acerta comes alive.
他深入研究了人物的背景，使会议和事件的细节重见天日；Pharmacyclics和Acerta之间的竞争变得生动起来。

His efforts to present the story as a real-life thriller generate pace, even if the approach sometimes feels formulaic.
他努力将故事写成现实生活的惊悚版本，尽管这种方式有时会让人觉得走流程，但仍能加快故事节奏。

[Paragraph 7]
The story has a happy ending. The race ends up producing not one but two cancer drugs, Imbruvica from Pharmacyclics and Calquence from Acerta.
故事有一个美好的结局。这场竞赛最终结果产生了2种抗癌药物，即Pharmacyclics公司的Imbruvica和Acerta公司的Calquete。

Both are effective and become blockbusters. The prices are dauntingly steep, but tens of thousands of patients benefit.
两种药都有效，且风靡一时。价格高得吓人，但数以万计的患者受益。

[Paragraph 8]
As, royally, do the backers of the two drugs.
当然，这两种药物的投资者也因此暴富。

Mr Duggan’s own total investment of $50m in Pharmacyclics yields $3.5bn, Mr Vardi reports. (The firm was bought by AbbVie in 2015.)
瓦尔迪报告称，达根先生对Pharmacyclics投资的5000万美元产出了35亿美元。（2015年该公司被AbbVie收购。）

Imbruvica, which became available first—marketed jointly with Johnson & Johnson—generated over $5bn in revenues in 2021 alone.
Imbruvica药先上市--与强生公司联合营销--仅2021年就创造了50多亿美元的收益。

Astra Zeneca took a majority stake in Acerta in 2016; their drug Calquence brought in more than a billion dollars in 2021 too.
2016年，阿斯利康持有Acerta的多数股权；他们的药物Calquence在2021也带来了10亿美元以上的收益。

[Paragraph 9]
This high-risk method for finding a new cancer treatment certainly works.
这种寻找新的癌症治疗方法风险高但确实有效。

Yet the reader is left with a nagging question. Is this testosterone-fuelled, profit-driven process really the best way to develop life-saving drugs?
然而，读者难免会有困惑：这种靠荷尔蒙驱动、利润驱动的过程真的是研发救命药的最佳方式吗？

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量603左右）
原文出自：2023年1月14日《The Economist》Culture版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
内森·瓦尔迪(Nathan Vardi)的新书《为了血与钱》(For Blood and Money)中，他讲述了这两种小分子化合物如何从默默无闻中被拯救出来，并在一夜之间让投资者变成亿万富翁的有趣而不可思议的故事。Imbruvica作为首个布鲁顿酪氨酸激酶（BTK）抑制剂，于2013年在美国上市后，一年内便成为销售额增长最快的抗肿瘤药物之一。在大型制药公司手中，Imbruvica和Calquence已经成为有史以来最成功的药物之一。
 
【重点句子】（3 个）
FEW SCIENTIFIC endeavours are more lucrative than developing a blockbuster drug—or a blockbuster vaccine.
成功开发一种特效药物或特效疫苗可以赚得盆满钵满，没有什么科学研究能与之媲美。

Readers become acquainted with their personal ambitions, egos and quirks, and the intrigue and politics of their rivalries.
读者会熟悉他们的个人志向、自负和怪癖，以及竞争对手们的阴谋和政治手段。

Both are effective and become blockbusters. The prices are dauntingly steep, but tens of thousands of patients benefit.
两种药都有效，且风靡一时。价格高得吓人，但数以万计的患者受益。