商业周刊 | 街角药店的困境

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Trouble at the Corner Drugstore

街角药店的困境

Amid price pressure and a shift to web sales, Walgreens itself could use a prescription

面对价格压力和向网络销售转型，药店连锁机构沃尔格林可以应用的处方方案

When billionaire Stefano Pessina took over as chief executive officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. in 2015, he soon began hunting for his next big deal.

2015年，亿万富翁斯德法诺·佩斯纳接任沃尔格林博姿联合公司（Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.）首席执行官后，他很快就开始寻找下一笔大生意。

By October of that year, he'd found it: a $9.4 billion plan to buy Rite Aid Corp. that would have vaulted Walgreens past CVS Health Corp. to become by far the largest U.S. drugstore chain.

在当年的10月份，他发现了一项价值94亿美元，收购医药连锁店来德爱公司（Rite Aid Corp.）的计划，该计划将使沃尔格林超越西维斯健康集团（CVS Health Corp.），成为迄今为止美国最大的药品连锁店。

But after he spent almost two years wooing government officials and investors, regulators prevented Walgreens from swallowing Rite Aid.

但在他花了将近两年时间博取政府官员和投资者支持后，监管机构阻止沃尔格林吞并来德爱公司。

In September 2017, Pessina had to settle for buying 1,932 Rite Aid stores, less than half as many as his original target.

2017年9月，佩斯纳不得不接受收购1932家来德爱公司的交易，这个数量不足他最初目标的一半。

As it turns out, that might have spared Walgreens an even more painful reckoning than the one it now faces.

事实证明，这可能使沃尔格林避免面临比现在所处的更艰难的局面。

On April 2 shares of the company plummeted 13 percent after it said earnings would be stagnant for the rest of its fiscal year, which ends on Aug. 31.

4月2日，该公司股价暴跌13%。此前该公司表示，其财年剩余时间（8月31日结束）内的盈利将停滞不前。

Pessina, who owns 15.9 percent of Walgreens shares, lost $1.2 billion of his personal wealth in one day; the stock's total decline since his Britain-centered Alliance Boots drugstore chain merged with the U.S.- based chain has reached 28 percent.

佩斯纳拥有沃尔格林15.9%的股份，他一天内损失了12亿美元的个人财富；自从他将以英国为中心的博姿联合药品连锁店与美国连锁店合并以来，这只股票的总跌幅已达28%。

Walgreens's troubles reflect a power shift that's reshaping the entire prescription-drug industry, from the companies that research and manufacture pills to the insurance companies that pay for them. Washington's clamor to reduce drug costs has compressed profit margins for physical drugstores such as Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid.

沃尔格林面临的问题反映出一种权力转移，它正在重塑整个处方药行业，使其从研究和生产药品的公司转型到为药品买单的保险公司。美国政府要求降低药品成本的呼声，已经缩减了沃尔格林、西维斯、来德爱等实体药店的利润率。

Big Pharma isn't raising the list prices of brand-name drugs as fast as they once did, limiting growth in the already small cut drugstores can make from new blockbusters.

大型制药公司并没有像以前那样快速提高名牌药品的价格，限制了小规模药店从新的畅销药品中可获得的增长。

Meanwhile, pharmacies have been unable to make up the shortfall with bigger markups on generic medications, because those prices aren't falling as rapidly as in years past.

与此同时，药店无法通过提高仿制药的价格来弥补亏损，因为仿制药的价格并不像过去几年那样在迅速下跌。