VOA慢速英语20060726a

HEALTH REPORT - A One-Pill Answer to Treating H.I.V.By Caty Weaver¹

Broadcast: Wednesday, July 26, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.


Atripla

The first treatment for H.I.V. in the form of one pill taken once a day is going to market in the United States. A spokesman for the drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb says the new product, called Atripla, has already been shipped to suppliers.

Atripla is the result of some unusual cooperation among drug companies. The government approved the treatment on July twelfth. Food and Drug Administration officials had until October to make a decision. But they acted quickly.

Doctors believe a one-pill-a-day plan will be more successful than current treatments which can involve several pills a day. Patients are less likely to miss treatments. Missed treatments can help the virus gain resistance to drugs.

Atripla combines three medicines widely used to treat the most common form of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. One of the three is Sustiva, made by Bristol-Myers. The other two are Viread and Emtriva, both from Gilead Sciences.

The new tablets are approved for use alone or with other antiretroviral products to treat adults.

Earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study of Atripla. Gilead paid for the study. Researchers compared the effectiveness of Atripla to the widely used combination of Sustiva and Combivir, from GlaxoSmithKline.

They reported that Atripla suppressed virus levels in more patients and with fewer side effects. A one-month supply in the United States will cost more than one thousand dollars, the same price as for the separate drugs it contains.

Gilead and Bristol-Myers will jointly² market Atripla. AIDS activists³ praised the cooperation between drug makers⁴ as historic. They also called on them to provide the treatment to developing nations.

The Bristol-Myers spokesman says his company and Gilead want to do that. They are currently negotiating with Merck. That company has rights to market the active substance in Sustiva in a number of countries outside the United States.

The spokesman says the new product could be offered as early as September through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The plan provides drugs to fifteen poor countries, mostly in Africa. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a two-pill-a-day H.I.V. treatment for use under the emergency plan.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts⁵ and archives of our reports are at www.unsv.com. I'm Barbara Klein.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句