【每日经济学人】2019-05-06

2019-05-06

The antibiotic industry is broken
Take inspiration from the entertainment industry
原文来源：The Economist 2019-5-3

Article

https://frankzhougq.github.io/article/TE-2019-05-06/

Notes

A WORLD WITHOUT antibiotics is horrible to contemplate.
难以去想象的

They underpin much of modern medicine and are essential for patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, organ transplants or common surgeries such as caesarean sections.
加强、巩固、构成基础；化疗

immediate and co-ordinated action
立即的且各方协调的

a calamity whose economic cost, the World Bank reckons, could rival that of the financial crisis of 2008-09.
比得上

mainly afflict the poor.
折磨

To prevent microbes from developing resistance to them, novel antibiotics tend to be reserved for use by doctors as a last line of defence and used for short periods.
防止细菌免疫，所以抗生素只能限制使用

Hence volumes are meagre.
稀少

But unlike new drugs for cancer or rare diseases, prices of antibiotics are kept low in many countries, creating little incentive for drug companies to develop new ones.
抗生素的价格还被管控了，被压低了

Big drug companies have largely bowed out of the game.

bow 'out (of sth)
to stop taking part in an activity, especially one in which you have been successful in the past 退出，告别（尤指一度成功的事业）
She has finally decided it's time to bow out of international tennis.
她最终认定是退出世界网坛的时候了

Bringing a drug from the laboratory to the clinic

cause private-sector innovation to shrivel even further.
私企创新更加萎缩

offer the prospect of decent profits.
提供可观利润的可能性

Fixing the pricing model is not a silver bullet, then. But it is a vital part of the answer.
银子弹，传说银制作的子弹可以对狼人、女巫造成致命伤，所以这里引申为良药、解决方案

And more could be done to improve sanitation and processes, in hospitals and elsewhere, to minimise the risk of infection in the first place.
可以做更多的事情来第一时间就防止感染