鸿茅药酒“走出去” 一举登上国际顶级期刊
十五天前，“鸿茅药酒”因“跨省抓捕”变得人尽皆知。4月26日，Nature官网发布文章《中国医生因批评传统医学被判入狱三个月》，就近期医生吐槽“鸿茅药酒”被跨省抓捕事件进行报道。
《Nature》
《自然》（英语：Nature）是世界上最早的科学期刊之一，也是全世界最权威及最有名望的学术期刊之一，首版于1869年11月4日。虽然今天大多数科学期刊都专一于一个特殊的领域，《自然》是少数（其它类似期刊有《科学》和《美国国家科学院院刊》等）依然发表来自很多科学领域的一手研究论文的期刊。在许多科学研究领域中，每年最重要、最前沿的研究结果是在《自然》中以短文章的形式发表的。
对于鸿茅药酒登上了很多科研人员辛苦奋斗数十年才能投上的梦想期刊，有网友调侃
Chinese physician released after 3 months in jail for criticizing a traditional medicine
Lawyers and physicians fear the case could silence[1] scientific debate on traditional remedies.
[1]silence: If someone silences you, they stop you from expressing opinions that they do not agree with. 制止 (发表不同意见)
Like other tyrants, he tried to silence anyone who spoke out against him.
像其他暴君一样，他试图压制任何公开反对他的人。
A Chinese doctor who was arrested after he criticized a best-selling traditional Chinese remedy has been released, after more than three months in detention. Tan Qindong had been held at the Liangcheng county detention centre since January, when police said a post Tan had made on social media damaged the reputation of the traditional medicine and the company that makes it.
On 17 April, a provincial court found the police evidence for the case insufficient. Tan, a former anaesthesiologist[麻醉学者] who has founded several biomedical companies, was released on bail[保释] on that day. Tan, who lives in Guangzhou in southern China, is now awaiting trial. Lawyers familiar with Chinese criminal law told Nature that police have a year to collect more evidence or the case will be dismissed. They say the trial is unlikely to go ahead.
The episode[事件；经历] highlights the sensitivities over traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) in China. Although most of these therapies have not been tested for efficacy in randomized clinical trials — and serious side effects have been reported in some1 — TCM has support from the highest levels of government. Criticism of remedies is often blocked on the Internet in China. Some lawyers and physicians worry that Tan’s arrest will make people even more hesitant to criticize traditional therapies.
Liquor allegations
Tan’s post about a medicine called Hongmao liquor was published on the Chinese social-media app Meipian on 19 December. It has since been removed, but according to the police report it alleged that Hongmao liquor, which purports[2] to treat dozens of conditions, is a “poison”. The post also contained health advice for ageing patients.
[2]purport: If you say that someone or something purports to do or be a particular thing, you mean that they claim to do or be that thing, although you may not always believe that claim. 声称
...a book that purports to tell the whole truth.
…一本声称讲出全部真相的书。
Three days later, the liquor’s maker, Hongmao Pharmaceuticals in Liangcheng county of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, told local police that Tan had defamed the company. Liangcheng police hired an accountant who estimated that the damage to the company’s reputation was 1.4 million Chinese yuan (US$220,000), according to official state media, the Beijing Youth Daily.
In January, Liangcheng police travelled to Guangzhou to arrest Tan and escort[3] him back to Liangcheng, according to a police statement.
[3]escort
1) If you escort someone somewhere, you accompany them there, usually in order to make sure that they leave a place or get to their destination. 护送
I escorted him to the door.
我护送他到门口。
2) N-COUNT An escort is a person who travels with someone in order to protect or guard them. 护送者
He arrived with a police escort shortly before half past nine.
快到9点半时，他由警察护送到达了。
Xia Nan, a criminal lawyer at Beijing Huayi law firm, says that the statute[法令；法规]under which the police arrested Tan, Criminal Law Article 221, calls for punishment of those who spread “falsified information”. “Tan is a specialist with a doctor’s credentials, who commented from a scientific perspective,” says Xia. “His comments clearly were not illegal.” The Liangcheng police department did not pick up the phone when Nature called.
Upon his release, Tan told an online Chinese news outlet The Paper that he did not deserve to be arrested. Tan said he considers his stint[4] in detention a form of “life training” and does “not regret writing the post, which is something I am supposed to do as a doctor”. Nature's attempts to contact Tan were unsuccessful.
[4]stint: A stint is a period of time which you spend doing a particular job or activity or working in a particular place. 一段时间
He is returning to this country after a five-year stint in Hong Kong.
他在香港呆了5年后就要返回这个国家了。
Popular therapy
Sales of Hongmao liquor reached 1.63 billion yuan in 2016, making it the second best-selling TCM in China that year. It was approved to be sold by licensed TCM shops and physicians in 1992 and approved for sale over the counter[柜台] in 2003. Hongmao Pharmaceuticals says that the liquor can treat dozens of different disorders, including problems with the spleen[脾脏], stomach and kidney, as well as backaches.
But Tan’s arrest has also drawn significant media attention on the company. More than two dozen provincial or city health authorities have reprimanded[5] Hongmao Pharmaceuticals over the past decade for misleading advertisements about the therapy's health benefits. This led to temporary suspension of sales in several cities until the advertisements were removed.
[5]reprimand: to tell someone officially that something they have done is very wrong 训斥，谴责
reprimand sb for (doing) sth
The military court reprimanded him for failing to do his duty.
军事法庭谴责他失职。
On 16 April, China’s drug regulator issued a statement calling on the company to explain punishments it has received for false advertisements in the past five years, to report all adverse effects recorded in that period and to provide further explanation of the liquor’s safety and efficacy to address public concerns.
The drug regulator also requested that the Inner Mongolian drug agency, which is tasked with enforcing the regulator's rules, take a closer look at Hongmao Pharmaceuticals to ensure its products are safe. The agency has threatened to revoke the company's license to make drugs if the company is found to have violated any regulations.
Company response
Hongmao Pharmaceuticals did not respond to Nature’s request for an interview. However, Wang Shengwang, general manager of the production center of Hongmao Liquor, and Han Jun, assistant to the general manager, gave an interview to The Paper on 16 April. The pair said the company did not need not publicize clinical trial data because Hongmao liquor is a “protected TCM composition”. Wang denied allegations in Chinese media that the company pressured the police to pursue Tan or that it dispatched staff to accompany the police.
Hun said that only 137 cases of people experiencing adverse side effects from the liquor have been reported in the past 13 years, and most of those were mild[6]. Wang also said that local distributors of Hongmao liquor — not the company — were responsible for many of the advertisements that led to temporary suspensions of liquor sales.
[6]mild一词大家最熟悉的意思应该就是形容天气/气候“温和的，暖和的”，其实根据它所修饰的对象还有许多其它引申意义。如形容疾病“不严重的，轻微的”；形容感情“温和的，不强烈的”；形容食物/味道“不浓烈的，清淡的”；形容批评“不严厉的，轻的”；形容问题/局势“不严重的，不紧张的”；形容人“温和的，温厚的”；形容药物/化学品“药性温和，和缓的”；形容肥皂“软性的，柔性的”；形容语言“不粗鲁的”。[摘自“朗文当代高级英语辞典（有道）”]
Li Qingchen, a paediatric surgeon[儿科外科医生] at the Harbin Children’s Hospital and a prominent critic of TCMs, says that the Tan case might make Chinese people more sceptical about the safety and effectiveness of Chinese medicine. “But most will probably think this is just a problem with Hongmao liquor, and still think Chinese medicine is reliable,” he says.
Xia is worried that the case could further silence public criticism of TCMs, environmental degradation, and other fields where comment from experts is crucial. The Tan arrest “could cause fear among scientists” and dissuade[7] them from posting scientific comments, he says.
[7]dissuade: If you dissuade someone from doing or believing something, you persuade them not to do or believe it. 劝阻
Doctors had tried to dissuade patients from smoking.
医生曾试图说服病人不要抽烟。
来源：《Nature》官网