Po A L
Centre for Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy, University of Nottingham, England.
Pharmacoeconomics. 1998 Oct;14(4):349-55. doi: 10.2165/00019053-199814040-00002.
Companies merge to achieve economies of scale. In an industry such as the pharmaceutical industry which relies on a high level of investment in research and development, such mergers appear rational. However, it is not at all obvious that a higher level of investment by a smaller number of firms will necessarily lead to an increased rate of genuine innovations. There is a risk that conflicts of interest and the pursuit of short term gains may encourage more mergers than is optimal for the industry. The impact of mega-mergers in the pharmaceutical industry on research output, employees, shareholders, financial advisers, managers and patients is discussed. A healthy pharmaceutical industry, able to invest the necessary resources in the development of innovative medicines is in the interest of patients and shareholders alike. Over-concentration may interfere with innovative activity and lead to monopolistic power. Close scrutiny of merger activity is important but in a deregulated world, governments may have little power to act. In any case, a drug-specific monopolistic industry may be beneficial to some countries which may therefore be reluctant to act in the interest of the world as a single community in search of more effective medicines.
公司合并是为了实现规模经济。在制药行业这样依赖高水平研发投资的行业中，此类合并似乎是合理的。然而，较少数量的公司进行更高水平的投资是否必然会带来更高的真正创新率，这一点根本不明显。存在这样一种风险，即利益冲突和对短期收益的追求可能会促使进行比行业最优数量更多的合并。本文讨论了制药行业的大型合并对研究产出、员工、股东、财务顾问、经理和患者的影响。一个能够为创新药物研发投入必要资源的健康制药行业，符合患者和股东双方的利益。过度集中可能会干扰创新活动并导致垄断势力。对合并活动进行密切审查很重要，但在一个放松管制的世界里，政府可能几乎没有权力采取行动。无论如何，特定药品的垄断行业可能对某些国家有利，因此这些国家可能不愿为了全球作为一个单一社群寻找更有效药物的利益而采取行动。
