过去一年，唐纳德·特朗普总统一直在吹嘘他与制药公司谈判达成的降低药价成果。但全球最大的几家制药商目前尚未感受到压力。
President Donald Trump has spent the past year touting lower drug prices he’s negotiated with pharmaceutical companies. The world’s biggest drugmakers aren’t yet feeling the pain.
周四，三家美国最大的制药商公布了创纪录的季度营收。礼来公司、默克公司和百时美施贵宝公司均上调了全年业绩预期。它们提到的原因是市场对新型疗法以及现有重磅药物的强劲需求，例如礼来的减肥明星产品Zepbound。
Three of the largest US drugmakers reported record quarterly revenue on Thursday. Eli Lilly & Co., Merck & Co. and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. all raised their forecasts for the year. They cited strong demand for new treatments and established blockbusters like Lilly’s weight-loss powerhouse Zepbound.
在美国中期选举前几天，手头拮据的选民正密切关注医疗费用问题，此次选举将是对特朗普第二任期的一次公投。制药商的业绩与华盛顿的表态形成了鲜明对比，政府方面已承诺要缓解处方药价格高企的问题。
The cost of medical care is a focus for cash-strapped voters days before a US midterm election that will be a referendum on Trump’s second term. The drugmakers’ results offer a split-screen view from Washington, where the administration has promised some relief from high prescription drug prices.
正在推进的政策变化可能需要更长时间才能反映到制药商的利润表上。就目前而言，蓬勃发展的业务正在为投资者赚钱，他们将制药板块视为规避动荡科技股交易的避风港。纽约时间下午12点40分，礼来股价上涨6.7%，默克上涨4.9%。
It may take longer for the policy changes underway to hit drugmaker’s income statements. For now, the booming business is making money for investors, who see the pharmaceutical sector as a haven from the volatile tech trade. Shares of Lilly rose 6.7% at 12:40 p.m. in New York, while Merck was up 4.9%.
政府与几乎所有大型制药公司都达成了所谓的“最惠国”协议，以使美国药价与其他发达国家支付的价格更加接轨。特朗普在椭圆形办公室与首席执行官们举行了仪式，这些高管承诺降低药价，以换取避免被加征威胁中的关税。政府还推出了TrumpRx，这是一个帮助美国人查找某些药物折扣现金价格的信息平台，并制定了旨在控制成本的新联邦医疗保险和医疗补助计划。
The administration struck so-called most favored nation agreements with virtually every large pharmaceutical company to bring US prices more in line with what other developed nations pay. Trump hosted Oval Office ceremonies with chief executives who promised lower costs in exchange for avoiding threatened tariffs. The administration also launched TrumpRx, a clearinghouse to help Americans find discounted cash prices for certain medications, and crafted new Medicare and Medicaid programs aimed at controlling costs.
强劲的需求帮助制药商摆脱了日益加大的压力，使制药巨头得以继续获取丰厚利润。礼来首席财务官周四在电话会议上对分析师表示，销量增长将足以弥补价格方面面临的任何压力。
Strong demand is helping drugmakers shrug off that mounting pressure, allowing pharmaceutical giants to keep reaping profits. Lilly’s finance chief told analysts in a call Thursday that volume growth would more than make up for any pressure on prices.
白宫发言人艾莉森·舒斯特宣称，通过“特朗普处方药计划”、医疗保险对GLP-1类药物的覆盖，以及所有州都加入医疗补助折扣计划，实现了节省开支。
White House spokesperson Allison Schuster touted savings through TrumpRx, Medicare’s GLP-1 coverage program, and all statesg up for a Medicaid discount program as accomplishments.
舒斯特在一份书面声明中说：“特朗普总统做到了前任总统无人能及的事，达成了‘最惠国’药品定价协议，为美国人提供大幅节省，推动了几十年来药价最大幅度的下跌。”
“President Trump did what no President before him could in securing Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing deals to offer Americans substantial savings that are driving the biggest drop in drug prices in decades,” Schuster said in a written statement.
一些药企与特朗普达成协议，以降价换取可触达市场的扩大。医疗保险在技术上被禁止覆盖减重治疗，但特朗普政府创造了一种变通办法，以换取礼来公司和诺和诺德公司的价格让步。
Some drugmakers cut deals with Trump to lower prices in exchange for expanding markets they can reach. Medicare is technically barred from covering weight-loss treatments, but the Trump administration created a workaround in exchange for price concessions from Lilly and Novo Nordisk A/S.
礼来公司美国业务负责人伊利亚·尤法表示，该公司的抗肥胖药物明年将在医疗保险和医疗补助中以更低价格更广泛地提供。他在与分析师的电话会议上说，这些药物在大多数适龄劳动者获得保险的商业市场上的价格将保持“总体稳定”。
Lilly US chief Ilya Yuffa said the company’s obesity drugs will be more widely available in Medicare and Medicaid next year at a lower price. The drugs’ prices in the commercial market, where most working-age adults get coverage, will remain “overall stable,” he said on a call with analysts.
Evercore ISI分析师乌梅尔·拉法特在给客户的研报中写道，该公司的Zepbound（替尔泊肽注射液）定价“保持强劲”，每处方约580美元，不包括以不到一半价格配发的医疗保险处方。他写道，基于与公司的交流，“他们预计短期内不会降价。”特朗普政府谈判达成的大多数价格让步，并不影响药企赚取大部分利润的私人保险市场。
The company’s Zepbound pricing is “holding in strong” around $580 a prescription, excluding Medicare prescriptions dispensed at less than half that price, Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat wrote in a note to clients. Based on conversations with the company, he wrote, “they do not expect it to drop off anytime soon.”Most of the price concessions the Trump administration negotiated do not affect the private insurance market where drug companies make much of their money.
白宫达成的协议还让药企得以规避医疗保险这一更大项目中面临的价格削减威胁，而那些削减本会对其利润产生更实质性的影响。
g White House deals also allowed companies to skirt threatened cuts to prices in the larger Medicare program that would have had more substantial impacts on their bottom lines.
特朗普的议价紧随前总统乔·拜登的努力之后，后者试图利用医疗保险项目庞大的采购能力，压低那些没有面临仿制药竞争的老旧药物价格。拜登2022年的《通胀削减法案》首次在历史上引入了医疗保险对特定药物的价格削减。
Trump’s bargaining followed efforts by former President Joe Biden to use the vast buying power of the Medicare program to drive down prices for older drugs that don’t face generic competition. Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act introduced Medicare price cuts on select medications for the first time in history.
在某些衡量标准下，美国药品价格正在下降，尽管该行业定价的复杂性使人难以看清全貌。消费者价格指数反映的是患者和保险公司在零售处方药配发时支付的价格，该指数显示药品价格正在下降。
By some measures, US drug prices are declining, though the slipperiness of pricing in the industry makes it hard to get a clear picture. The Consumer Price Index, which shows what patients and insurers pay for retail prescription drugs when they’re dispensed, suggests medication prices are falling.
但该指标并不反映扣除返利后的药品净成本，因此并非完美的衡量标准。它也没有涵盖在医院或诊所使用的药品价格，比如许多用于癌症或免疫疾病的最昂贵、最复杂的药物。
That gauge doesn’t reflect the net cost of drugs after rebates, so it’s an imperfect measure. It also doesn’t capture the price of medicines administered in hospitals or clinics, like many of the most expensive, complex medicines for cancer or immune disease.
这些细微差别或许可以解释选民所表达的部分不满。根据健康研究机构KFF的民调，医疗保健费用是美国人最担心的财务问题之一，药品价格尤其使一些人无法配药。
Those nuances may explain some of the dissonance voters express. Healthcare costs are among the top financial worries for Americans, with drug prices specifically preventing some from filling prescriptions, according to polling from health researcher KFF.