2019年经济学人 抗生素生产商的困境(2)

 

The demise¹ of Achaogen has been blamed on the peculiar² features of the antibiotics⁴ market,

Achaogen的破产被归咎于抗生素市场的独特特征，

rather than the poor business decisions of its managers.

而不是其管理者糟糕的商业决策。

The low number of cases that are suitable for potential treatment with novel antibiotics makes it hard to recruit enough patients for clinical trials.

适合使用新型抗生素进行潜在治疗的病例数量较低，这使得招募足够数量的病人进行临床试验变的困难。

Take carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (or CRE for short), which Achaogen went after.

以耐碳青霉烯类肠杆菌（简称CRE）为例，Achaogen就是做这个。

These bacteria kill half of those whose bloodstream they infect. But CREs cause only a tiny fraction of bacterial⁵ infections in American hospitals.

这些细菌会杀死一半的血液被感染者。但在美国医院中，CRE仅引起了很小一部分的细菌感染。

Firms get around this by having their new antibiotics approved for more common ailments⁶ treatable with existing drugs, such as urinary-tract infections.

公司通过让他们的新抗生素得到批准并用于现有药物可治疗的更常见疾病来规避这一问题，比如尿路感染。

At the same time, they publish results from small observational trials of the new drugs showing good recovery rates for hospital patients with CRE infections

与此同时，他们公布了这些新药的小型观察性试验结果，结果表明感染了CRE的住院患者有良好的康复率

—counting on doctors to prescribe the medicines off-label for CRE.

—指望医生能够为CRE开出未被临床试验认可的药物。

In the case of Achaogen, a small study showed that plazomicin was indeed safer and more effective for CRE than colistin,

以Achaogen为例，一项小型研究表明plazomicin确实比粘菌素更加安全有效，

a highly toxic⁷ antibiotic³ of last resort from the 1950s. Yet plazomicin did not make a dent⁸ in colistin use.

粘菌素是一种源于20世纪50年代的最后一种剧毒抗生素。但plazomicin的问世并没有减少粘菌素的使用。

A CRE antibiotic by Melinta that has been on the market for over a year is not selling well, either.

Melinta的CRE抗生素已上市一年多，但销量也不好。

That could be because few doctors know about the new treatments.

这可能是因为知道这种新治疗方法的医生并不多。

The firms which sell them lack the marketing⁹ dollars that big pharma firms shower on new drugs,

销售它们的公司缺乏大型制药公司投入新药的市场资金，

says Alan Carr, an analyst¹⁰ at Needham, an asset manager in New York.

Needham分析师兼纽约资产经理阿兰·卡尔表示。

It takes time for new antibiotics to make it into clinical guidelines,

新抗生素列入临床指南需要时间，

such as those of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which are updated infrequently.

比如美国感染病学会的那些，其更新并不频繁。

American hospitals, meanwhile, avoid new antibiotics because they end up footing the bill, which can run to several thousand dollars per patient.

同时，美国医院会避免使用新抗生素，因为最终他们需要自己买单，每名病人要花几千美元。

1 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

2 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

3 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

4 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

5 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

6 ailments   

疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His ailments include a mild heart attack and arthritis. 他患有轻度心脏病和关节炎。
• He hospitalizes patients for minor ailments. 他把只有小病的患者也送进医院。

7 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

8 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

9 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

10 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。