金融時報(bào):止痛藥物不再是中國的禁忌

止痛藥物不再是中國的禁忌

中國對止痛藥的污名和誤解由來已久，但這種情況正在慢慢改觀。過去的一年，中國止痛藥市場增長了20%，人們對于阿片類藥物的接受度漸漸提高。中國人對止痛藥的恐懼究竟從何而來，又是怎樣被克服的？

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

prostate ['prɑ?ste?t] n. 前列腺

synthetic[s?n'θet?k] adj. 合成的，人造的

traumatic[tra?'mæt?k] adj. 創(chuàng)傷的，令人痛苦的

eradicate[?'ræd?ke?t] v. 根除，撲減

stigma['st?ɡm(xù)?] n. 恥辱，污名

dispensation?d?spen'se??n] n. 分配，施與

Opioid boom in China as patients lose addiction fears(582 words)

By Wang Xueqiao and Tom Hancock

Diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, 77-year-old Zeng Changhe relies on a cocktail of drugs to treat his pain: five pills of Oxycontin three times a day, and morphine injections if the tablets fail to provide sufficient relief.

“We knew that opioids are addictive but he has to rely on it,” says his wife Ren Zhongqiong. “He’s suffering too much. Only these painkillers can make him feel like himself.”

Synthetic opioids have become the star performers in China’s pharmaceutical market, as a rapid increase in cancer cases drives demand for pain-reducing drugs and patients lose fears about addiction.

The market for painkillers in China grew 20 per cent last year to reach Rmb3.6bn ($530m), according to the China Pharmaceutical Industry Association, more than twice the rate of the overall drug market, which is the world’s second largest.

While most painkillers in China are used in surgical contexts, the recent growth has mainly been driven by a rise in a cancer rates from 2.1m new cases in 2000 to 4.3m in 2015, creating demand for management of chronic pain, analysts say. Lung cancer is China’s most common, partly due to high rates of smoking and air pollution.

“The development of treatment for late-stage cancer is the cause,” said Fan Bifa, director of China’s national centre for pain treatment. “The pain of advanced stage cancer patients is intense . . . generally we will use opioids in accordance with guidelines.”

Increased spending on dental surgery and a growth in surgical operations had also driven demand, he added.

China has traumatic historical memories of opioid abuse after Britain forced it to accept imports of opium from British India in the 19th century, leading to widespread addiction that was mostly eradicated, sometimes brutally, by the Communist party after it seized power in 1949.

A continued stigma about opioids created a reluctance to use them among doctors and patients alike because of associations with addiction.

But China’s government has driven a change in attitudes with a “good pain management” programme launched in 2011, which trains hospital staff to recognise different levels of pain and “provide effective relief through timely dispensation of medication”.

Rather than arriving on the ships of foreign merchants, now most of the opioids consumed in China are locally produced.

With a nearly 40 per cent market share last year, the Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group’s dezocine was the bestselling painkiller in China, according to CNPIC data. The drug is mostly used after surgery. By contrast, the most popular foreign brand is Bard Pharma’s Oxycodone, with a 6.5 per cent market share.

The Chinese market is just one-twentieth the size of the US’s, where a slow-burning epidemic of opioid abuse has seen prescription rates more than double since the early 1990s, while tens of thousands have died of overdoses.

The third most popular painkiller in China last year was Sufentanil, a powerful synthetic opioid developed for use in operating theatres, which has also seen growing rates of addiction in the US.

As the US government tries to tackle the epidemic by discouraging physicians from prescribing painkillers for chronic pain, companies are seeking growth in emerging markets such as China.

Mundipharma, which produces OxyContin — a drug blamed for intensifying the addiction crisis in the US — has launched a large-scale campaign in China involving cartoon videos aimed at both doctors and patients.

So far staff from more than 6,000 hospitals across China viewed online lectures hosted by Mundipharma’s platform to promote pain treatment some 64,000 times, according to the company’s website.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.Which of the following statements is true according to the article?

A. China has the second largest market for painkillers in the world.

B. Most painkillers in China are used in cancer treatments.

C. China has the highest death rate from lung cancer in the world.

D. The rise in cancer rates resulted in a rapid growth in painkiller market.

答案(1)

2.Fan Bifa believes the development of ____ causes the growth of painkillers in China.

A. chronic pain management.

B. cancer early diagnosis.

C. treatment for late-stage cancer.

D. hospice care.

答案(2)

3.According to the author, the continued stigma about opioids originated from ____.

A. the epidemic of opioid abuse in the US.

B. the widespread opioid abuse in the 19th century.

C. the brutal opioid eradication after 1949.

D. the imports of opium from Britain.

答案(3)

4.Which is the bestselling foreign painkiller in China?

A. Dezocine.

B. Sufentanil.

C. Oxycodone.

D. OxyContin.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：D.The rise in cancer rates resulted in a rapid growth in painkiller market.

解釋：盡管在中國大部分止痛藥都被用于外科手術(shù)，但近期的增長則主要是由癌癥發(fā)病率的上升推動的。

(2) 答案：C.treatment for late-stage cancer.

解釋：Fan Bifa認(rèn)為，晚期癌癥醫(yī)療水平的提高導(dǎo)致止痛藥使用量增加。

(3) 答案：B.the widespread opioid abuse in the 19th century.

解釋：中國對阿片類物質(zhì)濫用有著慘痛的回憶。19世紀(jì)，英國強(qiáng)迫中國接受進(jìn)口來自英屬印度的鴉片，這導(dǎo)致了中國出現(xiàn)大規(guī)模的鴉片成癮。

(4) 答案：C.Oxycodone.

解釋：根據(jù)CNPIC的數(shù)據(jù)，在中國銷量最高的止痛藥是揚(yáng)子江藥業(yè)集團(tuán)的地佐辛，而最受歡迎的外國產(chǎn)品是巴德制藥的羥考酮。