Data from Chinese customs shows the export value of traditional Chinese medicinal materials and decoction pieces increased nearly 20 percent year-on-year to $618 million in the first half of 2020, Tan Shengcai, secretary general of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Medicines & Health Products said during a thematic forum of the China International Fair for Trade in Services.
Tan noted that the world has spotlighted traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) for COVID-19 treatments since the outbreak of the pandemic, bringing TCM, to some extent, a significant opportunity to vigorously develop and increase global visibility.
Tan advised that Chinese researchers in the TCM sector should systematically organize the clinical data of TCM for the treatment of COVID-19 and actively share this with global researchers, in order to fight the coronavirus effectively and encourage interest in TCM.
Tan said that both TCM and TCM doctors should jointly go global and promote coordinated development. “TCM needs the guidance of TCM doctors to exert better curative effects and avoid the occurrence of unwanted side effects,” said Tan.
The move indicates that the TCM sector needs to optimize resources globally.
In addition, Tan advised that China can provide intellectual resources, such as traditional prescriptions, TCM theories, and research and development of new drugs, while Southeast Asia and Africa can provide raw materials and European countries can process them.
Tan calls for the establishment of a Chinese medicine overseas development service alliance with the involvement of domestic and international traditional Chinese medicine institutions, adding that the alliance could formulate a recognized TCM product catalog and expand the scale of overseas TCM products.
Two employees in a TCM store in Dongyang, East China’s Zhejiang Province, measure herbal medicine on October 31, 2018. File Photo: VCG
