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Taking its medicine
自食其藥
A drug giant coughs up to settle bribery charges
制藥巨頭被迫解決行賄指控
IN AMERICA, it was once common for drug firms to offer doctors perks to encourage them to prescribe their pills.
在美國，制藥公司用提成來鼓勵醫生給病人使用他們的藥品曾是司空見慣的事情。
Regulators now frown on such iffy sales techniques, and drug firms have more or less stopped using them.
如今，監管者對于這種可疑的銷售手段感到不滿，因而制藥公司不得不或多或少地停止使用這些銷售伎倆。
But in emerging markets, it is a different story,
但是在新興市場中，它卻是另一番景象。
as a settlement on August 7th between America's Department of Justice and Pfizer, a big American drug firm, made clear.
在8月7號，美國司法部門和美國的一家大型制藥公司輝瑞之間的事件更清晰地解釋了這種現象。
In China Pfizer established a club that provided high-prescribing doctors with all kinds of entertainment under the guise of attending conferences.
在中國，輝瑞公司建立了一個俱樂部，借助參加會議之名以各種形式款待那些開藥量大的醫生。
In Kazakhstan Pfizer awarded an exclusive distribution deal to a local firm after it was told there was no other way to secure government approval for a Pfizer product.
在哈薩克斯坦，輝瑞公司在得知沒有其他方式來確保政府同意使用它的產品之后，它把獨家銷售權授予給了當地的一家公司以便出售其藥品。
Unfortunately for Pfizer, such acts violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an American law that criminalises bribery abroad.
然而不幸的是，輝瑞的這些行為違反了《反國外行賄法規》，這是美國的一個判定在國外行賄的法律。
Doctors in many of the countries in question are state employees, making the gifts bribes to government officials.
在上述所談及的很多國家中，醫生屬于政府機關工作人員，而輝瑞公司正在向這些政府官員進行送禮行賄。
This week Pfizer agreed to pay a fine to settle corruption charges and to disgorge related illegally earned profits to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
這周，輝瑞公司同意通過交付罰款來解決腐敗指控并且向證券交易委員會交出相關的違法賺得的利潤。
The settlement, which will cost it $60m or so, covers similar offences committed by Wyeth, another drug firm, before it was acquired by Pfizer in 2009.
為了解決此事件，輝瑞公司將會花費約六千萬美元，這其中包括惠氏公司賄賂行為的罰款。惠氏公司于2009年被輝瑞公司收購，此前它曾涉嫌海外賄賂。
Johnson & Johnson, another big drugmaker, paid $70m last year to settle civil and criminal bribery charges.
另一個制藥大亨強生公司，在去年花費七千萬美元來解決民事和刑事上的行賄指控。
On August 6th Teva, an Israeli firm that is the world's largest generic drugmaker, said it was co-operating with SEC investigators.
在8月6日，以色列這家世界上最大的仿制制藥商梯瓦制藥公司說它正在配合美國證交會的調查者工作。
Indeed, eight of the world's ten biggest drug firms have warned of potential costs related to charges of corruption in markets abroad, according to Reuters.
事實上，據路透社稱，世界上十大制藥公司中的八家都憂慮地稱有可能會因國外市場中的腐敗指控而花掉大筆的錢。
So Pfizer's behaviour seems to have been normal for the industry, not an aberration.
因此在這個產業中，輝瑞公司的行為似乎是正常的，并非一個例外。
Citing the settlement, regulators will crow that the FCPA is being enforced more vigorously than at any time since it became law in 1977.
監管者借助這次的案例來告知制藥商們一個信息，那就是自《反國外賄賂法規》1977年成為法律以來，
They will also hope that it is evidence that their new carrot-and-stick approach is starting to work.
相較于以往的任何時候，它在當今被賦予了更大的懲罰力度。
Most successful prosecutions in the past have been the result of whistle-blowing or a lucky break;
他們同樣寄希望于這個軟硬兼施的方法能成為行之有效的證據。
regulators have long suspected that many companies have publicly supported the law while privately turning a blind eye to dodgy activities abroad, doubtless assuming that they would never be caught.
在過去，大多數成功的起訴都被認為是告密或者巧合的結果，因而監管者一直懷疑很多公司表面上在遵紀守法而背地里卻在國外做一些狡猾的買賣，多半在自認為不會露出馬腳。
The new approach is designed to encourage companies to police themselves, by punishing them only lightly when they turn themselves in.
這個新方法旨在鼓勵公司進行自我監督，而只有他們坦白自首時才會從輕發落。
The relatively small fine imposed on Pfizer was the Justice Department's way of showing that firms that co-operate will be treated leniently, says Ben Heineman of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
哈佛大學肯尼迪政府學院的Ben Heineman稱，輝瑞公司相對較小的罰款金額表明了司法部門會酌情處理那些與它們配合的公司。
Pfizer has gone out of its way to placate prosecutors:
輝瑞公司已經一改以往的行事方式來配合檢察官們:
it has been co-operating on the case since 2004, helping to identify illegal practices throughout its industry.
從2004年開始，它一直配合調查此案，幫助檢察官們證明其在行業中的違法行為。
It also oversaw the process that uncovered the misbehaviour at Wyeth.
它還監督了揭露惠氏藥廠不正當行為的審理過程。
The regulators have accepted Pfizer's claim that the offences were committed by local staff acting without the knowledge of head office in America.
監管者已經接受了輝瑞公司的說法，即聲稱本土員工的犯罪行為是在美國總部公司不知情的情況下進行的。
This follows April's decision by the SEC to charge a senior executive at Morgan Stanley, a bank, with corrupt activity in Shanghai,
在它之前是四月份美國證監會指控摩根史坦利投資公司，這家銀行的一名高級主管在上海進行腐敗活動的行為，
but not to impose legal penalties on the bank, which tipped off regulators about its rogue employee.
但美國證監會決定不對這家銀行進行法律制裁，因為這家銀行向監管者上報了其違紀人員的情況。
A few more examples of such regulatory forbearance and perhaps business will get the message.
此類監管寬容的例子還有很多，相信這些案例會給商業界一些啟示。
