Yunnan finds a cure for ailing TCM industry
By Rui Xia
KUNMING, China - The cool, white, state-of-the-art labs of
Yunnan Baiyao ("white medicine") Company
may not be what one has in mind when thinking of traditional Chinese medicine
(TCM).
It is nevertheless the place where chemists and experts on Chinese medicine
produce the patented drug san qi, a ginseng-based medicine that is now
being marketed worldwide. In other labs in Yunnan, a treatment for the AIDS
virus is being developed, while in isolated mountain areas, where a wealth of
medicinal
herbs grow in the wild, one can still see wandering medicine women selling the
same san qi to villagers for a few yuan.
These two spectacles, though worlds apart, represent the two faces of Yunnan's
traditional medicine industry, an embryonic industry now preparing to leap
forward.
Chinese medicine's journey to the West
Yunnan province, known in China as "the kingdom of plants", has always been of
immense importance to Chinese medicine. The 6,500 or so types of medicinal
herbs growing in the province account for more than 60% of all the plants used
in traditional Chinese medicine.
Despite Yunnan's wealth of herbs and local knowledge, until recently, the
province has lagged behind
Shanghai, Chengdu and Nanjing as a center of TCM. Yunnan's
TCM industry is still only 16th in the country in terms of production capacity,
but this situation is rapidly changing, as the provincial government has big
plans to develop the industry, improve marketing and attract foreign
investment.
"Yunnan is now one of China's fastest-growing provinces for Chinese medicine,"
said Dr Joshua Pollock, director of the Yunnan Educational and Health Services
program at the Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
"The success of Yunnan Baiyao with the san qi drug serves as a role
model for the TCM industry," he said. "They brought a local Yunnan product into
the international market. Internationally, traditional Chinese medicine is met
with skepticism and is continuously battered by modern pharmaceutical lobbyists
tying down traditional remedy supplies with regulations and litigation."
Attitudes toward TCM are changing. At a TCM conference held in
Beijing last year, statistics were
presented indicating growing interest in TCM remedies and treatments worldwide.
In the United States alone in 2004, more than 20,000 TCM clinics and 400
companies specialized in TCM products. Inside China in the same year, sales of
traditional medicine products counted for 26% of pharmaceutical sales.
These statistics actually understate the importance of TCM, however, since in
many parts of China, including Yunnan, traditional medicine is still the most
commonly used form of medicine and many people still brew their herbal remedies
themselves.
The growing interest in TCM in Western countries has also drawn attention from
some of the world's largest producers of pharmaceuticals. With prices for
developing new medicines skyrocketing, some large drug companies are turning to
TCM and the vast knowledge accumulated over thousands of years as a way to test
new drugs against their disease targets.
For example, Swiss pharma giant Novartis is financing a research project in
Shanghai, hoping to isolate active ingredients from thousands of medicinal
herbs that it hopes will be used for a wide range of diseases in fields
such as cancer, diabetes and central nervous system disorders. In another
project, supported by the World Health Organization, the traditional herbal
product qing hao is being used to fight malaria, the world's No
1 killer.
The target: Southeast Asia
Can Yunnan grasp its share of this development? Pollock believes it can. "I
have been very impressed with local TCM professionals and government
departments' enthusiasm for continuing education, research and drive towards
higher standards in the TCM industry. The government currently provides
incentives and invests in many fields within the traditional medicine industry.
"Yunnan's wealth of traditional and ethnic medicinal knowledge is a world
treasure that should be protected, researched and utilized. The government
seems to recognize this and is interested in further developing the local and
international traditional Chinese medicine market," said Pollock.
To achieve this, the Yunnan provincial government announced last year a
three-year plan to develop its traditional-medicine industry, encourage foreign
investment and create a better marketing system.
According to a Yunnan Daily report, marketing efforts - surprisingly perhaps -
will be focused not on Western countries but rather on the neighboring
countries of Southeast Asia. In Thailand, a Yunnanese remedy to relieve the
symptoms of AIDS has already been registered and put into use. Malaysia and
Singapore, both with large and influential Chinese communities and a long
tradition of using TCM, are also potential markets.
Clean air and standardization
"Integration (incorporating Chinese and Western methods into a single,
integrated medical practice) and "standardization (achieveing consistent,
repeatable results in drug preparations and treatment outcomes) are
oft-repeated terms in any discussion of TCM industry development.
Huge efforts are being made to standardize prescriptions and the manufacturing
of TCM products. Yunnan is a part of these efforts, as the modern technology
used in the Baiyao labs shows.
An Economist magazine review of China's pharmaceutical industry suggested that
standardization and significant development could be achieved mainly through
cooperation between academic research institutions and the private sector,
cooperation that was a cornerstone in the development of the drug industry in
the US.
In Yunnan, both the government and private sector seem to agree with this view;
enhancing cooperation is one of the main issues the local government intends to
address in its new plan for the industry. Much has been done already.
"Our institution works with the local government and private-sector
pharmaceutical TCM companies on a consulting basis to provide information on
international TCM standardization trends, international markets, brand naming
and image building," said Pollock. "We also work on education programs aimed at
increasing international TCM awareness."
But despite many positive developments, and the provincial government's
intention to make the TCM industry the biggest in the country, development of
the sector still faces many obstacles, especially with regard to foreign
investment.
"Yunnan has great potential to become a world center for traditional medicine
development," stated a manager in one of the province's largest TCM companies.
"But the climate for foreign investment requires improvement. The legal system
should be transparent, and regulations for foreign investment should be
standardized; this factor is no less important than the standardization of the
products themselves."
Improving infrastructure is important, the man added, but so is environmental
protection. "Clear air and clean water are among Yunnan's biggest assets.
Keeping a healthy environment is the key to producing high-quality organic
medicinal herb products, and the government should take that into consideration
when discussing the development plans of other industries in the province."
Another hindrance is the enforcement of patent regulations. Although China
strengthened pharmaceutical patent protection in 2001, there remains a thriving
counterfeit industry in the medical field, and investors are worried about
enforcement of patent laws, especially in remote areas such as Yunnan.
The holistic approach
Integration of Chinese and Western medical methods is under way, but whether it
can be done and, furthermore, whether such integration would be desirable,
remains controversial. "There are positive and negative effects of this
development," explained Pollock.
"Any development that brings funding into the TCM field can benefit its overall
growth. Developing TCM drugs can benefit the world, especially in times of
concern over pandemic disease. That qing hao is gaining acceptance in
the modern medical community after being used in China throughout history for
treating malaria is a positive development. However, it must be remembered that
Chinese herbal therapy is a holistic method, which combines different herbs
into a formula to treat illness.
"Isolating a single herb and furthermore isolating its active ingredient
reduces the overall effectiveness of the remedy, and is not a holistic science.
Unfortunately, science is still far from being able to tie the complicated
human physiology into holistic and comprehensive understanding. I hope that
future scientific research on Chinese herbal therapy will try and measure the
effectiveness of herbal combinations rather than that of isolated active
ingredients," said Pollock.
Despite this reservation, Pollock concluded on an optimistic note, "The future
looks bright for international TCM investments in Yunnan. We might see Yunnan
emerge as a national leader in 'green food' and organic herb production, as
well as become a TCM educational hub for international students."
While local producers enthusiastically embrace this forecast, foreign investors
are still checking the field. If good intentions and ambitious plans translate
into action, "the kingdom of plants" might very well become an empire of
medicinal herbs.
Rui Xia is a Western teacher and freelance writer living in China. Rui
Xia is her unofficial Chinese name.
