经济学人472:辉瑞制药有限公司 自尝苦果

 　　Business.

　　商业。
　　Pfizer.
　　辉瑞制药有限公司。
　　Taking its medicine.
　　自尝苦果。
　　A drug giant coughs up to settle bribery 1 charges.
　　一个制药巨头被迫出钱就撤销行贿指控与司法部达成和解。
　　IN AMERICA, it was once common for drug firms to offer doctors "perks 2" to encourage them to prescribe their pills. Regulators now frown on such iffy sales techniques, and drug firms have more or less stopped using them. But in emerging markets, it is a different story, as a settlement on August 7th between America's Department of Justice and Pfizer, a big American drug firm, made clear.
　　在美国，制药公司给医生"回扣"鼓励他们开处方时使用该公司生产的药物曾是很常见的事。现在相关管理部门开始禁止这样不规范的销售技巧，因此一些制药公司也或多或少不再使用这种技巧。8月7日，美国大型制药公司辉瑞就海外贿赂行为与美国司法部达成了和解。此事正好表明新兴市场的情况与美国的有所不同。
　　In China Pfizer established a "club" that provided "high-prescribing" doctors with all kinds of entertainment under the guise 3 of attending conferences. 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.
　　辉瑞公司在中国成立了一个"俱乐部"，该俱乐部以开会的名义邀请那些"开药量较大"的医生参加各种娱乐活动。辉瑞公司还与哈萨克斯坦一家当地公司签订了独家经销协议，因为此前辉瑞得知，除此之外没有其他的办法可以获得哈萨克斯坦政府对辉瑞制药的批准。
　　Unfortunately for Pfizer, such acts violated the Foreign Corrupt 4 Practices Act (FCPA), an American law that criminalises bribery abroad. Doctors in many of the countries in question are state employees, making the gifts bribes 5 to government officials. This week Pfizer agreed to pay a fine to settle corruption 6 charges and to disgorge related illegally earned profits to the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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.
　　不幸的是，辉瑞的这些行为违反了美国专门用来定罪海外行贿的《反海外腐败法》(FCPA)。受到质疑的多国医生都是国家机关的工作人员，于是这些礼物也就成了贿赂政府官员的赃物。本周，辉瑞公司为了了结腐败指控同意支付罚款，并愿意向美国证券交易委员会上缴相关非法所得利润。辉瑞公司进行此次和解将需要花费六千万美元左右，这笔费用还包括了对惠氏公司贿赂行为的罚款。惠氏制药公司于2009年被辉瑞公司收购，此前它也曾涉嫌海外贿赂。
　　Johnson & Johnson, another big drugmaker, paid $70m last year to settle civil and criminal bribery charges. On August 6th Teva, an Israeli firm that is the world's largest generic 7 drugmaker, said it was co-operating with SEC investigators 8. 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. So Pfizer's behaviour seems to have been normal for the industry, not an aberration 9.
　　去年，另一家大型制药公司强生因民事和刑事行贿受到指控，并为达成和解花费了七千万美元。今年8月6日，世界上最大的学名药（通用名药）生产公司以色列梯瓦制药工业有限公司称，它正在协助美国证券交易委员会调查员的调查工作。据路透社报道，事实上，世界上十大制药公司中有八家公司都在警惕因受控海外贪污可能造成的潜在开支。所以这样看来，辉瑞公司的行为在这个行业里并非异常。
　　Citing the settlement, regulators will crow that the FCPA is being enforced more vigorously than at any time since it became law in 1977. They will also hope that it is evidence that their new carrot-and-stick approach is starting to work. Most successful prosecutions 10 in the past have been the result of whistle-blowing or a lucky break; regulators have long suspected that many companies have publicly supported the law while privately 11 turning a blind eye to dodgy activities abroad, doubtless assuming that they would never be caught. The new approach is designed to encourage companies to police themselves, by punishing them only lightly when they turn themselves in.
　　相关管理人员拿此次和解做文章，自鸣得意地称这是自1977年《反海外腐败法》(FCPA)颁布以来实施最有力的一次。同时，他们还希望此次事件能证明他们采取的软硬兼施的措施已经开始生效。以往一些控诉成功的案件不是有人揭发就是运气使然，监管者一直怀疑许多公司虽然在公开场合坚决拥护法律，但私底下却对那些海外不法行为视而不见，还相信自己永远不会被绳之以法。现在新的监管方法目的在于鼓励那些公司进行自我监督，并对他们采取坦白从宽的政策。
　　The relatively 12 small fine imposed on Pfizer was the Justice Department's way of showing that firms that co-operate will be treated leniently 13, says Ben Heineman of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Pfizer has gone out of its way to placate 14 prosecutors 15: it has been co-operating on the case since 2004, helping 16 to identify illegal practices throughout its industry. It also oversaw 17 the process that uncovered the misbehaviour at Wyeth.
　　哈佛肯尼迪政治学院的Ben Heineman称，此次美国司法部门对辉瑞公司罚款力度相对较轻就是为了表明会对那些协助调查的公司宽大处理。辉瑞公司早就开始煞费苦心地讨好检察官：从2004年起辉瑞就开始协助调查员调查此案，帮助其调查全行业的非法行为。辉瑞还监督了一项揭发惠氏不法行为的调查。
　　The regulators have accepted Pfizer's claim that the offences were committed by local staff acting 18 without the knowledge of head office in America. This follows April's decision by the SEC to charge a senior executive at Morgan Stanley, a bank, with corrupt activity in Shanghai, but not to impose legal penalties on the bank, which tipped off regulators about its rogue 19 employee. A few more examples of such regulatory forbearance and perhaps business will get the message.
　　辉瑞公司称，这些不法行为都是当地一些员工在美国总公司不知情的情况下做出的，监管者也接受了这一说法。在此前的四月，美国证券交易委员会控告摩根史坦利投资银行的一位高管在上海涉嫌贪污。但由于该银行主动向监管者揭发了员工的不法行为，因此美国证券交易委员会并未对该银行做出处罚。或许这样宽恕处理的例子再多一些，企业就能更好地领会监管者的意图了。