时代周刊:偏头痛新药获批 偏头痛患者有了新希望

A New Migraine drug has been Approved, New hope for headache sufferers

偏头痛新药获批 头痛患者有了新希望

APPROXIMATELY 1 BILLION people across the globe sufer from migraines,

全球大约有10亿人患有偏头痛，

making the condition the world’s third most common illness,

这种疾病也因此成了世界上第三大常见疾病，

according to the Migraine Research Foundation.

偏头痛研究基金会调查显示。

Not only that, many sufferers—a disproportionate number of whom are women—

不仅如此，许多患者——患者大多为女性——

face doubt from doctors and peers who may downplay the pain.

还要面对可能低估他们的疼痛程度的医生和同龄人的怀疑。

And yet the U.S. market has offered no drug expressly designed to prevent these debilitating¹ headaches.

尽管如此，美国市场还是没有专门用来预防这些令人难以承受的头痛的药物。

That changed on May 17, when the Food and Drug Administration approved Aimovig, a drug from Amgen and Novartis.

好在5月17日，情况有了好转，因为这天，美国食品和药物管理局批准了安进和诺华两家公司合作研发的Aimovig。

Users take a monthly shot that targets a molecule² thought to play a role in migraines

这一药物专门作用于一种被认为与偏头痛有关的分子，使用者每月只需注射一剂，

and has been shown in clinical trials to measurably reduce headache frequency for chronic³ sufferers.

临床试验证明，该种药物显著降低了慢性偏头痛患者的头痛频率。

When the drug becomes widely available—which is scheduled to happen very soon—

这种药物大量投入市场——这一天很快就会到来——以后，

more sufferers will be able to put it to the test,

就能有更多的患者来检验它的药效了，

but it has already become invaluable⁴ to some patients in those trials.

但它对参与临床试验的那些患者而言，疗效已经极其显著了。

Susan Giordano, 58, who was plagued by up to 12 migraines a month, now hasn’t had one in a year.

58岁的苏珊·佐丹奴原来偏头痛的频率高达一个月12次，现在已经有一年没有复发了。

“The drug has really been lifetransforming,” Giordano says.

“这种药物确实改变了我的生活，”佐丹奴说。

“which I don’t say lightly.”

“这种话我是不会轻易说的。”

1 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

2 molecule   

n.分子，克分子

参考例句：

• A molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hygrogen and one atom of oxygen.一个水分子是由P妈̬f婘̬ 妈̬成的。
• This gives us the structural formula of the molecule.这种方式给出了分子的结构式。

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 invaluable   

adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的

参考例句：

• A computer would have been invaluable for this job.一台计算机对这个工作的作用会是无法估计的。
• This information was invaluable to him.这个消息对他来说是非常宝贵的。