《中英對照讀新聞》No cure, no pay may be new model for selling drugs 「無效、免費」可能成為新的賣藥模式

◎魏國金

Not satisfied with your prescription medicine? Then demand a refund.

不滿意你的處方用藥？那麼，要求退錢。

Unlikely as it may sound, money-back guarantees could be the next big thing in marketing pharmaceuticals, according to some experts.

聽起來也許不可能，但退錢保證可能是藥品銷售的下一樁大事，據一些專家表示。

Professor Claus Moldrup of the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen, thinks that a system of not paying for a drug unless it works would be good news, not only for patients and healthcare funders, but also manufacturers.

哥本哈根的丹麥藥學大學教授克勞斯．莫卓普認為，除非有效否則不付藥錢的體系不僅對病患、健保出資單位是好消息，對製藥商而言也是。

Currently, a large percentage of all medicines prescribed do not have the desired effect for a variety of reasons, including the wrong choice of drug, genetic factors and adverse interaction with other treatments.

目前，因包括選錯藥、遺傳因素，以及與其他療方產生不良的作用等各類原因，處方藥品中有很大的比例沒有達到預期的成效。

A money-back approach would tackle this by forcing drug companies to ensure the right drug gets to the right patient, Moldrup said.

退錢的方法可迫使藥商確保對的藥品用於對的病患，使該問題獲得處理，莫卓普說。

"A no cure, no pay strategy creates a win-win situation for the authorities as well as the drug industry, and thus patients, because in a competitive environment only the best drugs will win," he wrote in the British Medical Journal.

「無效免費的策略為當局與製藥業創造雙贏局面，病患也會獲益，因為在競爭環境，唯有最好的藥品才能取勝，」他在英國醫學期刊上寫道。

新聞辭典

prescription：處方、藥方，動詞為prescribe，例句：The doctor prescribed asprin for her headache. （醫生為她的頭痛開了阿斯匹靈。）

refund：可當動詞與名詞，意為退還、退費，a tax refund： 退稅。

adverse：形容詞，相反的，比如，adverse wind（逆風）、adverse circumstances（逆境）。

win-win：雙贏，win-win situation（雙贏局面）。