世界上发行量最大的周刊《时代周刊》杂志在2019年12月16日上发表了一篇关于《孟加拉国的经济奇迹》的长文(第194卷,第26期)。文章认为,孟加拉国碧康制药股份有限公司已发展成为全球仿制药行业的“领先者”,它为孟加拉国的经济增长提供了新的启示。现将全文翻译成中文,供大家参考!


 
《时代周刊》(Time)又称《时代》,创立于1923年,是美国三大时事性周刊之一,内容广泛,对国际问题发表主张和对国际重大事件进行跟踪报道。2018年12月,世界品牌实验室编制的《2018世界品牌500强》揭晓,《时代》排名第263。
 
中国众多著名历史人物均曾登上《时代周刊》封面人物,包括毛泽东、周恩来、邓小平等,并引发全球媒体的广泛关注,产生深远影响。



Beacon Pharmaceuticals Limited- A Leading Light
碧康制药股份有限公司——仿制药的领先者
 
With a market value of $2.6 billion, Bangladesh's pharmaceuticals sector is the second-largest contributor to the country's economy behind the ready-made garment industry. It meets 98% of domestic needs, its drugs and remedies are exported to 140 countries around the world and it has become a major magnet for foreign investment.
 
孟加拉国制药业市场规模高达26亿美元,仅次于成衣业,是孟加拉国经济的第二大贡献者。它满足了98%的国内需求,其药品和药物出口到全球140个国家,并已成为吸引外国投资的主要洼地。
 
The industry's phenomenal growth over the past 20 years is partly the result of the decision by the World Trade Organization to give patent exemption to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh as part of its mission to promote access to medicines for all. "Enshrined in the Doha Declaration of 2001, this agreement has given companies operating in the sector the flexibility to develop generic versions of pharmaceuticals that are under patent protection elsewhere, Bangladeshi companies can then either sell them into the domestic market or to other LDCs and non-WTO member countries that have not implemented patent protection.
 
该行业在过去20年中的显著增长是由于世界贸易组织WTO决定给予孟加拉国等最不发达国家专利豁免,作为其促进所有人平等获得药品的使命的一部分。”在《2001多哈宣言》中,该协议赋予了在该领域经营的企业可灵活开发在其他国家享有专利保护药品的仿制药。据此,孟加拉国公司可将其仿制药出售给国内市场,也可以出售给其他未实施专利保护的最不发达国家和非世贸组织成员国。
 
One company that has taken full advantage of this regulatory environment is Beacon Pharmaceuticals Limited, which has grown into Bangladesh's leading producer of oncological drugs and the fastest growing pharmaceutical company in the country in just 13 years, lt manufactures more than 200 generic drugs and 55 oncology products, Beacon routinely extends its portfolio by introducing 10 to 15 new products a year, making it a pioneer in biotech and anti-viral drug development as well as in oncology. But oncology remains at the heart of the company's operations and raison d'Etre.
 
正是充分利用这一监管环境,碧康制药股份有限公司在短短13年内成长为孟加拉国领先的抗肿瘤类药物生产企业和该国发展最快的制药公司,生产200多种非专利药物和55种抗肿瘤类药物,碧康制药公司每年还推出10至15种新产品,使其成为生物技术类、抗病毒类药物和抗肿瘤类药物等仿制药的领军者。尤其是抗肿瘤类药物,这是该公司运营的核心部分。


 
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, around 250,000 Bangladeshis contract cancer each year, and the public-sector healthcare infrastructure is simply not up to addressing a problem of this size, Back in the 1980s, Beacon's managing director Mohammed Ebadul Karim and his siblings were working as pharmaceutical traders and were regularly exposed to the scale of the problem. “It became very clear to us that the cost of cancer treatment was very high, while in the decades after independence most Bangladeshis were very poor." Karim recalls, "Many people were dying without even being diagnosed."
 
据国际癌症研究机构称,孟加拉国每年约有25万人患上癌症,而政府公共部门的医疗保健基础设施根本不足以解决这一规模的问题。早在20世纪80年代,碧康制药公司总裁穆罕默德·埃巴杜尔·卡里姆和他的家族成员就从事制药行业,也意识到这一问题的严重性。"我们非常清楚,癌症治疗的费用非常高,而在独立后的几十年里,孟加拉国人民非常贫穷“。卡里姆回忆说,"许多人甚至还没被诊断就已病亡了”。
 
Karim was determined to play his part in alleviating this suffering. Undeterred by his lack of technical experience and the skepticism of friends and associates, who told him he was entering a medical and commercial minefield, Karim linked up with a Spanish consultant engineering firm that he encountered in Frankfurt. That company agreed to provide him with a conceptual design for his product technology. Beacon Pharmaceuticals opened for business in 2006 and has since managed to capture a 53% share of the domestic oncology market. With many Bangladeshi cancer sufferers still obliged to go abroad for treatment, Karim is strongly considering setting up "a technically advanced diagnostic center" in collaboration with a globally reputed lab.
 
卡里姆决心在减轻这类痛苦方面发挥自己的作用。他的朋友和同事们告诉他,他正在进入一个医疗和商业领域的雷区,但他并没有因为缺乏技术经验和因他们的怀疑而退缩。卡里姆与他在法兰克福结识的一家西班牙工程顾问公司取得了联系。这家公司同意为他的产品技术提供概念设计。碧康制药公司于2006年开始运营,并一开始就成功占领孟加拉国内肿瘤市场53%的份额。由于许多孟加拉国癌症患者仍不得不出国接受治疗,卡里姆正考虑与一家全球著名的实验室合作,建立一个技术先进的“癌症诊疗中心”。
 
Beacon Pharmaceuticals was also the first Bangladeshi company to start exporting life-saving cancer drugs to fellow LDC countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, With the advantage of patent exemptions, as per the WTO agreement globally, Beacon became the first producer of 20 molecules after the originator. "Karim says. "In most cases, we offered these new drugs at a fraction of the cost of the originator. Now, we sell them directly to customers around the world through our Global Patient support program."
 
碧康制药公司也是孟加拉国第一家向亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲最不发达国家出口抗癌药物的制药公司。根据世贸组织WTO的相关协议规定,碧康制药公司凭借专利豁免的优势,成为继原研药企业之后的第一家可生产20多种小分子药物的制药公司。”卡里姆说,“在大多数情况下,我们生产的仿制药成本只是原研药的一小部分。现在,我们正通过全球患者援助计划,让全世界的贫困患者获得质量可靠稳定的廉价药物,让他们均可获益。”



A long-standing commitment to R&D has always be on central to Beacon's business philosophy, and it is currently exploring how to improve the processes around existing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (APl) and formulation products. Although Bangladesh manufactures 4,000 generic finished drug formulations,90%of the raw materials are imported, mainly from China and India. To meet the demands of the high-tech APls that will soon begin to be developed at the new state-supported APl park, Beacon is going to set up an oncology APl facility. This new oncology plant will be 100% compliant with both North American and Western European regulations.
 
长期致力于研发一直是碧康制药公司经营理念的核心,目前公司正在探索如何改进现有的活性药物成分(API)和配方制剂流程。虽然孟加拉国生产可4000多种非专利成品药制剂,但90%的原料药依靠进口,其中主要来自中国和印度。为了满足国家扶持的即将开工建设的原料药高新技术新园区的需求,碧康制药公司即将投资建设一家抗肿瘤类原料药生产工厂,这家新工厂将完全符合北美和西欧发达国家的法规要求。
 
Once the facility is complete, Karim is confident that he will be able to get the registration in the U.S., Canada and the EU that will enable Beacon to sell its products into those markets at cost-competitive prices.
 
一旦工厂建成达产,卡里姆相信他的产品将能够在美国、加拿大和欧盟获得注册,从而使碧康制药公司能够以具有成本竞争力的价格将其产品销售到这些市场。
 
"WE WANT TO BE REGARDED AS THE MOST RESPECTED COMPANY IN OUR SECTOR IN THE WORLD, BECAUSE BUSINESS ISN'T OUR ONLY MOTIVATION," KARIM SAYS.
"WE WANT TO EARN A PROFIT WHILE AIDING HUMANITY AT THE SAME TIME."
 
“我们希望将碧康制药公司发展成为全球最受患者尊重的制药公司,商业利益不是我们唯一的动力”,卡里姆说。
“我们在帮助全球患者获得更多廉价药物的同时,企业自然就会获得应有的利润回报。”