Modernizing Medicine Just The Tonic

Domestic and overseas experts have urged for greater promotion of the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at a symposium held in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province.

The forum - jointly sponsored by the State Drug Administration and the local government of Hangzhou - is part of the ongoing West Lake Expo 2001, which involves a series of cultural and business events and runs until November 10.

China has a long history of using herbs as medicine, which has been used widely in eastern and southeastern Asian countries including Thailand and the Republic of Korea.

TCM has retained its popularity despite advances in modern medicine during the past century.

But people are continuing to use TCM in traditional ways and this is hindering its prospects of flourishing further, experts said.

"It is difficult to control the quality of TCM with the traditional way of using it. This is an important reason affecting the development of China's TCM industry," said Ren Dequan, deputy director of the State Drug Administration (SDA).

Unlike Western medicines which have to go through rigorous testing and approval procedures before they can be distributed widely, TCM does not have detailed quality controls placed on its ingredients.

And China, the birthplace of TCM, has lagged behind neighbouring countries in this field.

Statistics reveal China accounts for only 3 to 5 per cent of market share in the world's trade volume of herbal medicine - much less than Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand.

And many of China's pharmaceutical factories are relatively small, unable to compete with advanced counterparts overseas.

There are more than 1,000 companies in China making traditional Chinese medicine, but fewer than 20 per cent are large or medium-sized.

The Chinese Government has agreed to give foreign drug stores access to Chinese markets in 2001 and this has made the situation even more serious.

However, the situation is expected to change through the pressure exerted by the SDA on provincial drug administration authorities to pay more attention to the development of TCM.

The SDA is aiming to bring China's TCM industry up to global standards, according to Ren.

China has been engaging in a standardization study of more than 150 kinds of TCM since 1996.

Abundant in TCM resources and home to 2,385 kinds of raw materials of TCM, Zhejiang Province is to give priority to the modernization of the herbal medicine.






People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/