Patent cliff refers to a sharp drop in revenue that a company experiences when a lucrative patent expires。

Pantent cliff“專利懸崖”是指企業(yè)的收入在一項(xiàng)利潤(rùn)豐厚的專利收效后大幅度下降。

There is a simple explanation for most of the mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical world these days: the so-called Patent Cliff. Simply put, many of the drug industry’s biggest earners are about to lose their patent protections。

最近，制藥行業(yè)內(nèi)部兼并案不斷，大部分可歸結(jié)為一個(gè)原因：所謂的pantent cliff“專利懸崖”。簡(jiǎn)單地講，就是許多制藥行業(yè)的贏家將會(huì)失去的專利保護(hù)即將到期。

For example, Lilly is already facing the biggest "patent cliff" in the industry. Five of its six leading products face generic competition in the next four years. Barbara Ryan, a stock analyst with Deutsche Bank, said Lilly’s earnings will decline 35 percent by 2014 unless it makes one of the larger acquisitions it has historically resisted。

舉個(gè)例子，美國制藥巨賈禮來公司已經(jīng)面臨著業(yè)界最大的“專利懸崖”。它的六種主要產(chǎn)品由五種將在今后四年面臨仿制藥的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。據(jù)德意志銀行的股票分析師芭芭拉瑞安說，禮來公司2014年的收入將減少35%，除非它改變想法，接納較大規(guī)模的并購。

失去了專利保護(hù)，一部分制藥廠商面臨破產(chǎn)，而另一部分則可能轉(zhuǎn)戰(zhàn)仿制藥市場(chǎng)。作為消費(fèi)者的我們，有可能在此過程中買到廉價(jià)藥，也有可能無藥可買。無論哪種結(jié)果，還是先鍛煉好身體，盡量不賣藥。