止痛药物不再是中国的禁忌

中国对止痛药的污名和误解由来已久，但这种情况正在慢慢改观。过去的一年，中国止痛药市场增长了20%，人们对于阿片类药物的接受度渐渐提高。中国人对止痛药的恐惧究竟从何而来，又是怎样被克服的？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

prostate ['prɑːsteɪt] n. 前列腺

synthetic[sɪn'θetɪk] adj. 合成的，人造的

traumatic[traʊ'mætɪk] adj. 创伤的，令人痛苦的

eradicate[ɪ'rædɪkeɪt] v. 根除，扑减

stigma['stɪɡmə] n. 耻辱，污名

dispensationˌdɪspen'seɪʃn] n. 分配，施与

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.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

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.

解释：尽管在中国大部分止痛药都被用于外科手术，但近期的增长则主要是由癌症发病率的上升推动的。

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

解释：Fan Bifa认为，晚期癌症医疗水平的提高导致止痛药使用量增加。

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

解释：中国对阿片类物质滥用有着惨痛的回忆。19世纪，英国强迫中国接受进口来自英属印度的鸦片，这导致了中国出现大规模的鸦片成瘾。

(4) 答案：C.Oxycodone.

解释：根据CNPIC的数据，在中国销量最高的止痛药是扬子江药业集团的地佐辛，而最受欢迎的外国产品是巴德制药的羟考酮。