VOA标准英语2012--Cheaper Drugs Allow Better Treatment of HIV/AIDS Patients

 

Cheaper Drugs Allow Better Treatment of HIV/AIDS Patients

PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is responsible for getting millions of people on treatment. But researchers say it was not until the program started using cheaper generic¹ drugs that great strides were made against the epidemic².

PEPFAR is considered one of the hallmarks of President George W. Bush’s time in office. Its goal was to transform HIV/AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable chronic³ disease. And for millions of people around the world, that’s now the case as the program continues under President Obama.

However, Dr. Kartik Venkatesh said when PEPFAR began it was hampered⁴ by the high cost of brand name antiretroviral drugs.

“Early on, PEPFAR wasn’t able to reach nearly as many individuals because if the proprietary⁵ versions of these drugs were going to be used, simply, with the limited budget only so many could be reached. However, [in] the real success of PEPFAR, a significant factor has been the procurement⁶ and use of generic drugs,” he said.

Venkatesh is the lead author of a study by Brown University researchers on the success of PEPFAR.

He said, “The question was if we’re providing patented drugs to American patients, we should be providing the same drugs internationally to HIV-infected patients because it’s U.S. taxpayer⁷ dollars. One could say there were multiple reasons why that was the case. Certainly some would also speculate that the pharmaceutical⁸ industry did have a vested interest perhaps. But in the end it was a matter of that these generic drugs were known to work.”

And they were known to work about the time PEPFAR was launched in 2003. Using generics⁹ dropped PEPFAR’s cost of treating a person from about $1,100 per year to about $300 in 2005.

“Both the U.S. government and American taxpayers¹⁰ are getting more bang for their buck¹¹. And [for] a lot of developing countries, that certainly means more money gets to be spent on other healthcare services, other than just putting money into treatment and drugs,” said Venkatesh.

PEPFAR has also been able to save millions of dollars by reducing transport costs – using ships instead of planes to deliver the drugs.

The PEPFAR model, said Venkatesh, could also be applied¹² to other diseases as developing countries begin seeing what had been mostly rich nation diseases.

“There is a move towards understanding that the real and perhaps potentially larger burden in the future is also going to be chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes¹³, cancer. And those are also diseases that require chronic, long-term medication. A lot can be learned from the experience about accessing generics for the treatment of HIV,” he said.

The Brown University study recommended that a regulatory framework be in place for the “efficient and transparent¹⁴ procurement of generic drugs.” This would include the U.S. government, the Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and generic drug manufacturers.

1 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

4 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

5 proprietary   

n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主

参考例句：

• We had to take action to protect the proprietary technology.我们必须采取措施保护专利技术。
• Proprietary right is the foundation of jus rerem.所有权是物权法之根基。

6 procurement   

n.采购；获得

参考例句：

• He is in charge of the procurement of materials.他负责物资的采购。
• More and more,human food procurement came to have a dominant effect on their evolution.人类获取食物愈来愈显著地影响到人类的进化。

7 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

8 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

9 generics   

n.（产品，尤指药物 ）无厂家商标的，无商标的( generic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pfizer has set up an in-house division to handle such generics. Pfizer已经建立了一个内部机构来处理这些学名药。 来自互联网
• Payers are being more pushy about getting patients to take generics. 药物费用的支付者更倾向于让病人使用非专利药。 来自互联网

10 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

11 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

12 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

13 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

14 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。