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  3. By wrestling with the question of its corporate structure, Pfizer is having a debate that echoes throughout the industry. Invest

By wrestling with the question of its corporate structure, Pfizer is having a debate that echoes throughout the industry. Invest

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问题     By wrestling with the question of its corporate structure, Pfizer is having a debate that echoes throughout the industry. Investors have pressed many diversified drug firms this year over whether they should break themselves up into more specialised units. Diversified firms are those that typically have consumer-health divisions offering low-margin products such as plasters and talcum powder. Meanwhile, "pure-play" drug companies focus on innovative medicines—for example, a full cure for Hepatitis C— that command high margins.
    Companies such as Johnson & Johnson (J&J), GSK and Novartis fall into the first camp, and have all recently wrestled with the question of splitting themselves up. Investors and analysts tell them that they may be worth more broken into their parts than as a whole, and ask whether capital is being allocated efficiently across their divisions. These sort of questions inspired Pfizer to sell its consumer-products division to J&J in 2006, and Merck, an American drug firm, to divest its consumer unit to Bayer in 2014.
    Neil Woodford, an influential shareholder in many pharma companies, including the British drug firm GSK, accused it in January of being four FTSE100 companies bolted together. GSK includes its core medicines and vaccines outfit, a consumer-healthcare division, a dermatology unit and a specialist HIV business. Andrew Witty, its boss, explains that some time ago he took a long-term view of his company, anticipating greater pressure on drug prices. The firm wanted to offset lower drug prices with higher sales of low-margin, high-volume products. The aim was to invest in businesses that were less exposed to a "pricing dynamic".
    Other diversified pharma companies make the same case. Consumer divisions smooth out the bumpy revenue that comes with the uncertain business of inventing drugs—which may fail to win approval, and eventually come off patent. In recent months the argument has gone their way. There has been heavy pressure on drug pricing in America after a series of firms, most recently Mylan, were pilloried for stratospheric rises. The NASDAQ biotech index, comprising mostly small firms pursuing innovative drug research, fell by 3.6% on a single day in August when Hillary Clinton sharply criticised the industry’s decisions on pricing. Advocates of diversification were boosted by GSK’s strong performance in the second quarter of this year. It handily beat expectations thanks to those boring, low-margin areas like consumer health and vaccines.
    Even firms that publicly profess a desire to slim down are likely to buy others. Cash is piling up on the balance-sheets of many companies in the industry. Japan’s Takeda is the latest to indicate that it is on the prowl for acquisitions. Firms may be looking for new drugs to sell, or different geographical regions to operate in. In specific areas such as cancer, points out Matthias Evers, a partner at McKinsey, a consultancy, scale and the depth of drug pipelines matter enormously. Pfizer’s purchase of Mediation, for example, allows the bigger firm to bolster its oncology portfolio. However much pharma bosses and investors debate the merits of focus versus diversification, they will keep doing deals.
According to the author, Neil Woodford ______.
选项 A、was accused of binding four FTSE100 companies together
B、had the final say on the core medicines and vaccines outfit in GSK
C、criticized the GSK for its wrong doing in the stock market
D、was anticipating greater pressure on drug prices
答案C
解析 细节题。KK三步宝典：K1定位。由Neil Woodford定位到第三段首句：Neil Woodford，an influential shareholder in many pharma companies, including the British drug firm GSK，accused it in January of being four FTSE 100 companies bolted together．这个题目就是考查对这句话的理解：主干：Neil Woodford accused it in January of being four FTSE100 companies bolted together．其中it=GSK；搭配：accuse A of B, being four FTSE100 companies bolted together，这个结构属于复合动名词短语。参考译文：尼尔·伍德福德在许多制药公司中都是有影响力的股东，其中包括英国制药公司葛兰素史克公司，他在1月份指责葛兰素史克将四家富时100公司绑在一起。KK三步宝典：K2替换。A选项“尼尔·伍德福德被控告将四家富时100公司绑在一起”，直接排除！B选项“尼尔·伍德福德对于葛兰素史克的核心药物和疫苗部门有最终决定权”，原文说“尼尔·伍德福德在许多投药公司中都是有影响力的股东，其中包括英国制药公司葛兰素史克公司”，但没有说had the final say！所以是错误的，排除！ C选项“指责葛兰素史克公司在股票市场的错误行为”，其中criticized=accused wrong doing in stock market=将四家富时100公司绑在一起：这就是同意替换！D选项“尼尔·伍德福德期待药品价格有更大的压力”，对比原文，没有相关描述，故排除。
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