談判馬拉松後拿出來的誠意 在GSK道歉之外

“GSK plc sincerely apologises to the Chinese patients, doctors and hospitals, and to the Chinese Government and the Chinese people . . .”

“葛蘭素史克總公司(GSK plc)向中國患者、醫生、醫院和中國政府、全體中國人民深刻道歉……”

It is quite something for a company to apologise to 1.3bn people all at once. Focus on the doctors. They are the reason for the Rmb3bn fine (nearly $500m) which GlaxoSmithKline must pay in China.

對一家公司而言，向13億人一併道歉，不是件易事。把焦點放在醫生身上吧。他們才是GSK必須向中國支付30億元人民幣(合近5億美元)罰金的原因。

GSK’s Chinese subsidiary was found guilty of bribery on Friday after a year-long investigation. The stock market was never bothered. The shares moved little when the investigation, and then the fine, were disclosed. China may be too small to matter much for now. It is under 3 per cent of GSK’s sales. And one might assume that China will continue to grow without much cost. After all, GSK’s apology does not suggest its Chinese business will face formal oversight – unlike banks who pay fines to US regulators and must host embedded “compliance offices”.

上週五，在經過長達一年的調查後，GSK中國分公司被認定犯有行賄罪。GSK股票從未收到此次調查的影響。當調查結果公佈時、以及罰金被披露時，股價都幾無變動。中國市場給GSK貢獻的收入可能還太小，佔GSK銷售額的不到3%。人們可能會認為，中國市場將會繼續增長，而成本不會大幅上升。畢竟，GSK的道歉並不表明其中國業務被監管機構正式“盯上”了——不像那些向美國監管機構支付罰金的銀行，它們必須建立“合規辦公室”。

A fine, an apology and a rethink of practices might seem to be enough. Except for the doctors. They are not paid much. One of the country’s top physicians told the National People’s Congress this year that the annual incomes of hospital doctors in Guangzhou are four times their official salaries. China’s drugs market is $80bn in size – third largest in the world, with four-fifths of sales via hospitals. If the physician is right about the gap between salary and income, there will be more drug company investigations.

處罰、道歉、重審業務模式——GSK做的看上去已經夠多了。但別忘了中國醫生。中國醫生的工資不高。一位頂尖的醫生今年曾在全國人大(NPC)表示，在廣州，醫生的實際年收入是他們正常工資的4倍。中國藥品市場規模為800億美元，居全球第三，其中五分之四的銷售額是通過醫院實現。如果這位醫生有關工資和實際收入差距的言論是正確的，那麼未來將出現更多的針對製藥公司的調查。

GSK’s apology is for improperly paying “non-government personnel”: a euphemism for doctors. And beyond the changes it promises for the Chinese business – price cuts – GSK will stop payments to doctors for junkets and revise how it pays salespeople. That is likely to mean revenues – one of the few parts of its China business that GSK discloses – will slow. In any case, shareholders in GSK and other pharma groups should demand to know much more about their companies’ Chinese businesses. This story is not over.

GSK此次道歉，是因為它不正當地給予“非國家工作人員”（這是對醫生的委婉説法）財物。除了承諾在中國改革（也就是降價）之外，GSK將停止向醫生支付旅遊費用，並修改其銷售人員的工資計算方式。這可能意味着，收入將減少（收入是GSK公佈的有關其中國業務為數不多的信息之一）。不論怎樣，GSK和其他製藥企業的股東都應當要求這些公司披露更多在華業務信息。故事還沒有結束。