At present, the annual sales volume of the world botanical medicine market exceeds 16 billion US dollars, and is increasing at a rate of 10% to 20% annually. However, China's annual export of traditional Chinese medicine preparations is about 100 million US dollars, accounting for only 3% to 5% of it. Dr. Ma Pharmaceuticals, one of the world's top 100 OTC (Over-the-counter drug) pharmaceutical enterprises, announced that this year, a herbal medicine for detoxification, beauty maintenance and constipation treatment has officially entered China. Previously, Japan's Taiko Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. had just introduced its new form of Chinese medicine to the South China market. In addition, large pharmaceutical groups from Europe, Japan and South Korea have implemented localization strategies through joint ventures and investments in China, They have flooded into the natural plant medicine market in China. In fact, these are just a microcosm of the large-scale entry of "foreign traditional Chinese medicine" into China. Industry insiders predict that in the next five years, this entry rate will increase at an annual rate of 300%, and traditional Chinese medicine in China is facing an awkward situation of "competing for dominance".
Relying on modern medical science and technology is a key means to achieve sustainable development of wildlife conservation and pharmaceutical resource development. International pharmacologists hope to unravel the secrets of 250000 known plant diseases around the world before forests disappear forever. Now, with the use of new technologies, the realization of the above intentions has become easier. In view of the sudden recognition of the important position of Traditional medicine, it has triggered an upsurge of research to find potential drugs to treat all diseases from influenza to cancer. Most of the research and development companies come from developed countries, while poor and plant-based countries with abundant medicinal resources demand to share the benefits of developing new drugs.
In recent years, the international pharmaceutical industry has been accelerating the research of new drugs based on plant resources. Given that scientists can quickly identify whether plants have therapeutic effects and identify promising compounds, the aforementioned development has been greatly accelerated. Medical research has found that many diseases are governed by specific enzymes and cell receptors. If these specific enzymes and cell receptors can be prevented, then the disease will also be prevented. Researchers use recombinant DNA technology to produce a small amount of rare enzymes, and analyze the impact of plants on them, instead of laboriously feeding experimental animals with extracted things, and then waiting to observe the changes. With the help of high-power computers and robots, this process has been accelerated.
James McChenis, director of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Mississippi, said: "It used to take eight years to separate a molecule, but now it only takes two weeks." Once a compound is separated, scientists will explore to expand the therapeutic effect and reduce side effects. McChenis believes that the application of Genetic recombination technology will speed up such development and reduce costs.
Nowadays, large pharmaceutical companies are striving to send the maximum number of plant species into the laboratory for large-scale screening, in order to identify any possible biological effects. Researchers from SK Company simultaneously screened 15-20 efficacy options from plant specimens to search for efficacy in combating cancer and viruses, as well as in treating neurological, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal diseases. The National Cancer Institute of the United States brings 4500 kinds of plants, as well as marine organisms, bacteria and fungi, from 25 countries every year. After screening the extracts of cells that can fight AIDS virus infection and other 60 kinds of anti-cancer cells, it distributes promising plants to pharmaceutical companies. A survey report states that developed countries have experienced an average annual growth rate of 15% in their expenditure on developing plant-based medicine over the past decade, with 15 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies experiencing an average annual growth rate of 22.5% in their research spending.
Third world countries with abundant plant medicine resources are suddenly awakening to the value of plant resources, and some countries are taking strict measures. Brazil and Mexico have already banned the export of certain plants, and other countries are also tightening regulations on plant exports.
Although there are more than 1000 traditional Chinese medicine enterprises in China, there are still too few enterprises that truly scale up and meet international production standards. This is mainly because it is impossible to ensure comprehensive quality control of traditional Chinese medicine production from the source and production aspects, and there is no quantitative standard for pharmacology and ingredients. For traditional Chinese medicine companies in countries such as Germany and Japan, they start the entire process of quality tracking from seed selection and seedling cultivation. The annual research and development expenses account for about 30% of product sales, ensuring that their products smoothly pass international certifications such as the US FDA and EU GMP.
In order to increase the research and development efforts of natural plant medicines, China plans to build the world's largest library of traditional Chinese medicine compounds. Not long ago, the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Kunming Botanical Garden in Yunnan launched a study called Phytochemistry Group. It is estimated that by 2005, more than 3000 kinds of natural medicinal plants will be collected, from which more than 5000 high-purity compound samples will be extracted, and the largest sample database and database of natural ingredients and compounds of traditional Chinese medicine in the mainland (even the world) will be established. The establishment of the natural component library of traditional Chinese medicine will enhance China's ability to independently develop innovative drugs, because in the world, one Lead compound of new drugs can be screened out from an average of about 10000 compounds. The important reason why traditional Chinese medicine has been difficult to modernize and internationalize is that modern medical theories cannot explain the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine and can not control the Active ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. In fact, the establishment of the natural ingredient bank of traditional Chinese medicine is only a part of the project of Phytochemistry group.
At present, this project has completed the extraction of over 1200 plants and isolated over 700 pure compounds; These Active ingredient that have been found will help treat common diseases such as cardio cerebral Vascular disease, tumors, Alzheimer's disease, etc. In addition, the establishment of a database of natural ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine also helps to clarify which compounds in traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations and Chinese herbal medicine have therapeutic effects on diseases.
After thousands of years of accumulation, traditional Chinese medicine has an irreplaceable position in China's pharmaceutical market. However, how to compete with "foreign traditional Chinese medicine", how to improve the international market competitiveness of enterprises, and expand international market share should be urgent issues that need to be solved in China's traditional Chinese medicine industry. For this reason, some experts pointed out that the first step is to strengthen the external promotion of traditional Chinese medicine and expand its application scope and influence globally. The second is to establish standards that are in line with international standards, which requires enterprises to increase efforts to standardize and standardize the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, control the effective resources of wild and authentic medicinal materials, enhance the technological innovation ability of production enterprises, protect the intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine, and achieve modernization of traditional Chinese medicine production. The third is to actively adapt to the market, cater to world trends, and eliminate obstacles for traditional Chinese medicine to enter the international market.