Once-daily pill could simplify HIV1 treatment

Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences have combined many H.I.V. drugs into a single pill Sometimes the best medicine is more than one kind of medicine. Malaria¹, tuberculosis² and H.I.V./AIDS,2 for example, are all treated with ____1____ of drugs. But that can mean a lot of pills to take. It would be ____2____ if drug companies combined all the medicines into a single pill, taken just once a day.

Now, two companies say they have done that for people just ____3____ treatment for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The companies are Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences. They have ____4____ a single pill that combines three drugs currently on the market.3 Bristol-Myers Squibb sells one of them ____5____ the name of Sustiva.4 Gilead combined the ____6____, Emtriva and Viread, into a single pill in two thousand four.

Combining drugs involves more than ____7____ issues. It also involves issues of competition ____8____ the drugs are made by different companies. The new once-daily pill is the result of ____9____ is described as the first joint³ venture agreement of its kind in the treatment of H.I.V.

In January the New England Journal of Medicine5 published a study of the new pill. Researchers compared its ____10____ to6 that of the widely used combination of Sustiva and Combivir. Combivir ____11____ two drugs, AZT7 and 3TC.8 The researchers say that after one year of treatment, the new pill suppressed H.I.V. levels in more patients and with ____12____ side effects.9 Gilead paid for the study. Professor Joel Gallant⁴ at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, led the research. He is a paid adviser⁵ to Gilead and Bristol-Meyers Squibb as well as the maker⁶ of Combivir, GlaxoSmithKline.

Glaxo Smith Kline reacted ____13____ the findings by saying that a single study is of limited value. It says the effectiveness of Combivir has been shown in each of more than fifty studies.

The price of the new once-daily pill has not been announced. But Gilead and Bristol-Myers Squibb say they will provide it at reduced cost to developing countries. They plan in the next few months to ask the United States Food and Drug Administration10 to ____14____ the new pill.

There are limits to who could take it because of the different drugs it contains. For example, ____15____ women are told not to take Sustiva because of the risk of birth disorders⁷.11 Experts say more than forty million people around the world are living with H.I.V.

词汇：

pill n. 药丸

simplify vt. 简化

malaria n. 疟疾

tuberculosis n. 结核（病）

virus n. 病毒

joint adj. 联合的，共同的

venture n. 冒险（事业）

suppress vt. 抑制

approve vt. 批准

pregnant adj. 妊娠的，有孕的

competition n. 竞争

注释：

1.  HIV ( human immunodeficiency virus )：人免疫缺陷病毒

2.  AIDS ( acquired immunodeficiency syndrome⁸ )：获得性免疫缺陷综合征，艾滋病

3.  （be / come）on the market：出售

4.  Sustiva以及后面出现的Emtriva、Viread和Combivir都是治疗艾滋病药物的商品名。

5.  New England Journal of Medicine：新英格兰医药杂志。New England 是美国东北六州( Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island 和 Connecticut )的总称。

6.  英国英语中compare with是“与…相比较”的意思，compare to是“把...比作...” 的意思，但在美国英语中compare to也有compare with的意思，这里就是“把...与…相比较”的意思。 

7.  AZT (Azidothymidine)：叠氨胸苷（能抑制引起艾滋病的人免疫缺陷病毒）

8.  3TC：拉夫米定（一种胞嘧啶核苷衍生物，能抑制乙肝病毒和人免疫缺陷病毒的逆转录酶的活性，改善肝脏组织的病变）

9.  side effect：副作用

10.  United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)：美国食品与药品管理局

11.  birth disorder：先天性疾病