Foreign Chinese Medicine Occupies 1/3 Domestic Market

Due to the backwardness of China's agricultural management methods, some farmers used illegal pesticides in the cultivation process of Chinese herbal medicines, resulting in the frequent occurrence of pesticide residues and excessive heavy metal exposures of Chinese herbal medicines. However, with the help of quality advantages, foreign countries have begun to aggressively enter the domestic market for Chinese herbal medicines. At present, the domestic market for foreign traditional Chinese medicines has reached 1/3, which directly threatens the healthy development of the Chinese medicine industry.

People in the industry believe that China should establish a comprehensive assessment system for Chinese medicine quality that conforms to the theory of Chinese medicine as soon as possible, and set up a specialized agency to guide farmers in the rational use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. At the same time, enterprises should increase investment in science and technology, improve the quality of Chinese medicine products, and accelerate the industrialization and internationalization of Chinese medicine.

Medicinal planting technology backward testing standards are not uniform

In Anguo City, Hebei Province, the planting area of ​​Chinese herbal medicines is more than 70,000 mu, and there are more than 40 planting varieties. The large-scale varieties are dominated by “eight major peony” other than glutinous rice, accounting for more than 50% of the total area. As one of China's traditional Chinese medicine distribution centers, Anguo City operates nearly 2,000 kinds of Chinese medicinal materials, and most of the country's Chinese herbal medicines can be purchased on the Anguo City Chinese herbal medicine market.

The reporter learned that there are many sources of goods on the professional market of Anguo City's Chinese herbal medicines from farmers, and scattered individual plantations have brought certain difficulties in supervision. Due to the lack of guidance, the cultivation and pest control technologies of retail households generally lag behind, and they need to rely more on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Pesticide residues and heavy metals do not meet national standards.

According to Huo Zhijun, head of the cooperatives for the cultivation of Chinese herbal medicines in the Huozhuang Village of Anguo City, “The quality of the medicinal materials of retail households may be more problematic, and the use of banned pesticides by the country cannot be ruled out.”

Safety inspection is an important link in the quality of Chinese herbal medicines. However, in the detection of pesticide residues and heavy metals, companies are faced with the problem of inconsistent standards. Some heads of traditional Chinese medicine companies believe that what kind of medicine is qualified does not yet have a unified answer. The so-called qualified, not only refers to pesticide residues and heavy metal residues do not exceed the standard, but also have efficacy.

At the end of 2012, the Hong Kong Department of Health announced the fifth issue of “Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Standards” covering the safety and quality reference standards for 42 kinds of commonly used Chinese herbal medicines, and for the determination of heavy metal content, pesticide residues and index constituents of medicinal herbs. Detailed regulations.

Experts believe that whether these standards are reasonable and have no operability remains to be discussed. "The implementation of the Chinese medicine market in the country is the national 2012 edition of the Pharmacopoeia. Compared with the actual situation, the pharmacological properties of some Chinese herbal medicines make it harder to grasp. The Chinese herbal medicines are the essence of the country and the pure pharmacological properties are the most important."

According to Han Shikai, deputy chairman of the Chinese Medicine Material Appraisal Committee of Hebei Province, “The standard for the detection of Chinese herbal medicines is the standard of Western analytical chemistry. Traditional Chinese medicine is the conclusion of clinical curative effect. Classical Chinese medicine is the basis of modern Chinese medicine, and the emphasis is on compatibility. Formulations correspond to each other, but the current study is to disassemble prescriptions, use medicinal herbs as drug research, and use traditional Chinese medicine standards to apply western medicine testing standards."

Chinese medicine high prices back home

With the change of disease spectrum and medical models, and the rise of “return to nature” and “green” consumption, the status of traditional natural medicines and botanicals has been increasingly improved. Based on this, foreign pharmaceutical scholars and manufacturers are committed to finding new drug clues from botanical drugs and trying to open up new ways for drug development, especially Germany, Japan, South Korea and other countries. According to one document, the global international market for Chinese herbal medicines has been divided by foreign countries, with Japan accounting for 80% of the share, South Korea 10%, and China only 5%.

The Chinese medicine market in the international market is not only occupied by foreign countries, but the vast majority of traditional Chinese medicines are Chinese herbal medicines that are sold cheaply from China. After deep processing abroad, the packaging is sold back to China at a high price. Li Zhenjiang, chairman and president of Shenwei Pharmaceutical Group, said, "According to incomplete statistics, this part of Chinese medicine has accounted for 1/3 in the domestic market."

In the case of Ginkgo biloba, Germany imports a lot from China every year. Low prices and a lot of pollution remain in China, and the products produced are sold back to China at a price ten times higher. Experts stated that the advantages of high-tech Chinese herbal medicines, sophisticated materials, and simple and clear positioning are the reasons for its rapid development.

Li Zhenjiang said: “The biggest reliance on traditional Chinese medicine is still its quality advantage, that is, the high degree of standardization of quality standards, especially for botanical preparations in some countries in Europe, which are usually labeled with standard extracts or active ingredients, resulting in China’s quality standards. Compared with it, such defects as lack of standardization, standardization, and poor reproducibility have formed the strong competitiveness of foreign traditional Chinese medicines to enter the Chinese medicine market."

Experts believe that foreign Chinese medicine accounts for 1/3 of China's proprietary Chinese medicine market, which will inevitably exacerbate the crisis in TCM germplasm resources and the international competition in R&D and utilization of TCM resources.

Li Zhenjiang said that some herbal companies in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe have purchased crude drug raw materials from China's low-cost raw materials for rough processing. The phenomenon of returning high prices back to domestic refining extracts has become increasingly severe. This is not only a problem for our Chinese medicine industry. The great impact will also pose a threat to the healthy development of China's economy.

Establishing a comprehensive evaluation system for quality of Chinese medicine

Prof. Zhang Guijun, a vice president of the China Association of Commodities and a supervisor of doctoral students in traditional Chinese medicine at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, believes that there must be correspondence between quality assessment indicators and clinical efficacy, and quality standards should be established on the basis of the efficacy components of Chinese medicine. This is the core of the standards that are truly applicable to the clinical treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, and is also the basis for establishing a comprehensive evaluation system for the quality of traditional Chinese medicine that conforms to the theory of Chinese medicine.

“The use of highly toxic pesticides generally clearly stipulates the scope of application. The government's agricultural department only directs farmers to use them correctly. For some farmers who violate the regulations, there are no relevant laws and regulations, and there are few government-level mandatory management.” Some Chinese medicine companies are responsible for People believe that there are still some peasants using illegal pesticides during the planting process. This situation usually occurs when there is a large area of ​​pests and diseases. Solving this issue requires the formulation of relevant laws and the government's efforts to increase enforcement.

At the same time, Chinese medicine companies should also increase investment in scientific and technological research and development, increase the scientific and technological content of Chinese medicine products, and constantly improve the quality of Chinese medicine products. China now has more than 100 traditional Chinese medicine research institutes and more than 2,000 Chinese patent medicine production companies. There are more than 4,000 kinds of Chinese patent medicines that can be produced. However, major breakthroughs in innovation have been achieved, and there has been less conversion to actual productivity. In the 40 years after artemisinin, there has not been a second comparable result.

Li Zhenjiang believes that it is necessary to increase investment in research of traditional Chinese medicine, especially to increase the research on the material basis of traditional Chinese medicine, adopt new production methods and management models, develop new products, and improve product quality.

Shenwei Pharmaceutical Group, a new drug code-named SLT, has completed all design options for clinical trials and has begun simultaneous clinical trials in China, Australia, and the United Kingdom. This is the first time in the Chinese medicine industry to implement synchronous overseas R&D of traditional Chinese medicines. It opened up a new model for modern international cooperation in the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine.

Li Zhenjiang said, "This cooperation is only in terms of capital, and our investment is three times more than domestic research and development. From the beginning to the end of the development process, it is based on the requirements of international registration. The choice of medicinal materials used in this product is not only Chinese medicine but also It is a European Pharmacopoeia-received species, which not only meets the requirements of traditional Chinese medicine compatibility theory, but also has the characteristics of European botanicals. Its quality control components are clear, the mechanism of action is clear, the safety is higher, and the curative effect is more precise. It can meet the needs of Chinese and Western countries. Standards will surely be accepted and recognized by consumers in all countries."