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China is boosting the innovation system of traditional Chinese medicine to enhance the market competitiveness of its pharmaceutical industry.

According to guidelines on the modernized development of traditional Chinese medicine recently adopted by the State Council, the traditional medicine's material basis and functional properties in the treatment of disease will be further explored and refined by using modern scientific methods.

Yao Xinsheng, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said during a recent seminar held by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, that Chinese herbal medicines and natural drugs should be considered as important precursors of future medicines.

New Japanese medicines developed on traditional Chinese prescriptions and phytotherapy, currently used in Europe, are all examples of new medicines derived from traditional Chinese medicine, Yao said.

Tebonin, a new medicine emerging in Europe made from the leaves of ginkgo trees, a plant species exclusive to China, has an annual sales volume of over one billion US dollars, according to Yao.

Ren-sheng Xu, professor with Pharmagenesis in Palo Alto, California, USA, said that with over 12,000 varieties of herbal medicines, China can develop new medicines from the country's medicinal herbs, plants and marine life.

Although new scientific breakthroughs related to the combinatorial chemistry, computing chemistry and human gene map in recent years have greatly contributed to pharmaceutical research, technologies used to make new medicines from traditional medicinal plants still cannot be replaced, said Xu.

In the view of many Chinese experts, the lack of comprehensive qualitative criteria, scientific testing methods and intellectual property rights protection has locked China's traditional medicine industry into even fiercer competition with transnationals in the wake of the country's entry into the World Trade Organization.

"China should accelerate the development of a pharmaceutical innovation system, especially with regard to the modernization of traditional medicine, to develop its pharmaceutical industry," said Chen Kaixian, a member with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.