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Charities help Big Pharma
慈善機構協助大型制藥公司
IT WAS once only drug firms that developed drugs. But this is changing. Take the case of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a Parkinson's disease charity. On April 19th it announced that it would pay for a clinical trial of a drug developed by Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant, that might treat the mental symptoms of the disease.
過去只有制藥公司才開發藥品，但這種情況正在改變。就拿Michael J. Fox基金會，一個帕金森病的慈善機構來說。此機構在4月19號宣布他們將為賽諾菲（Sanofi），法國的制藥巨頭，所研發的一種藥物的臨床試驗買單，此藥有可能用于治療帕金森病的精神癥狀。
The deal is the latest sign of a broader shift—one that is driven by desperation. Patents on blockbuster drugs are expiring. Research and development (R&D) have grown less productive, with billions of dollars yielding only a trickle of drugs.
這筆交易是產業萎靡所觸發的轉變的最新跡象。重磅藥品的專利已開始失效。藥品研發部門已不再那么多產，數十億美金的投入只換來少許藥品的誕生。
Some blame stringent regulators. Others grumble that big pharma firms are too bureaucratic. All agree that developing a new drug takes money (well over $1 billion) and time (over ten years in America). Whatever the cause, a shortfall in R&D has inspired a flood of new partnerships.
有些人將此歸咎于嚴苛的監管部門，另一些人則認為大型制藥公司太過官僚化。一個公認的事實是藥物的開發是需要大量金錢（遠超過十億美元）和時間（在美國超過十年）的。無論原因如何，研發部門的低產給眾多新合作關系的誕生以靈感。
Charities have been particularly bold. Companies, beholden to shareholders, are loth to do things that might lose them money. Charities, by contrast, exist to give the stuff away. The leading "venture philanthropist" is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It has supported early research 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 became the first approved drug to target the mutated gene that causes cystic fibrosis. Kalydeco is owned by Vertex, a firm based in Massachusetts, but the foundation will get royalties from the drug's sales, which will then support further research. Other charities have followed the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's lead. The Fox Foundation, for example, has spent $289m on research.
慈善機構的參與尤其令人關注。受惠于股東的公司們的不作為可能會斷送他們的資金來源。慈善機構，卻相反，生來就是樂于施舍。囊腫性纖維化（Cystic Fibrosis）慈善基金是風險慈善的領頭羊。此基金已對藥物的早期研究，臨床試驗，小型生物科技公司和最大的生物制藥公司輝瑞（Pfizer）給予資助。并且，投資7千5百萬美金進行Kalydeco的早期研究，Kalydeco在一月份成為第一個針對導致囊性纖維變性的突變基因的藥物，它是位于馬薩諸塞州的Vertex公司的產品，此公司會從藥品的銷售額中給投資的慈善基金一定的分成，這又將會被投資于藥品的進一步研究。其他的慈善基金也紛紛效仿Cystic Fibrosis。就如Fox慈善基金已在藥物研究上投資了2.89億美金。
Governments have also waded further into R&D. In 2007 the European Commission announced a ten-year,
