In China, as the quintessence of Chinese medicine, it is declining. Statistics also make a footnote for the decline of the Chinese medicine market: 10 years ago, Chinese medicine accounted for about 28% ~ 30% of the Chinese medicine market, while last year, Chinese medicine accounted for only 45 billion, about 18% of the Chinese medicine market of about 250 billion yuan. "
Everyone must understand a basic concept when reading the following article. Chinese medicine is not a "medicine" in any foreign country, but a health care product. Why is the foreign health care product market so big? Because there is extra money, there are patients who are disappointed and desperate about modern medicine, and there are hundreds of millions of ignorant people.
Foreign Chinese medicine invaded the China market to make the lying China government suffer. In foreign countries, the health care products stipulated by foreign governments are produced with advanced equipment technology and low-threshold policy norms, and are sold as drugs at the price of "drugs" in China. Who won't take the initiative? The U.S. government requires that the ingredients of health care products should be marked when they are produced, regardless of whether the use said by the producer is true or not.
A few days ago, Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, announced in China that it would research and develop Chinese herbal medicines for the China market and wanted to acquire China Pharmaceutical Company for 500 million yuan.
It is predicted that Chinese medicine industry is one of the most promising industries in 2 1 century. At present, the world herbal medicine market sales are increasing at an annual rate of 10%~20%. This is an excellent opportunity for China, which is rich in unique resources of traditional Chinese medicine.
However, in recent years, foreign pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of China's defects in intellectual property management to obtain intellectual property rights of Chinese traditional medicines through cooperation, acquisition and merger. At the same time, China enterprises are prohibited from producing and selling, and "foreign Chinese medicine" is sold back to the China market to make huge profits. This undoubtedly sounded the alarm of intellectual property protection of traditional Chinese medicine in China.
Experts pointed out that in the future competition, in order to maintain the status of a big country of traditional Chinese medicine, it is necessary to introduce relevant policies and regulations specifically for the protection of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine as soon as possible to avoid improper possession of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine in the future. At the same time, combine traditional advantages with modern medical theory and high technology to improve the scientific and technological content of all aspects of Chinese patent medicine production.
"Foreign traditional Chinese medicine" is very popular in China.
With the improvement of people's requirements for drug safety, natural botanical drugs are being favored. The most potential place for the global natural medicine market is Asia, especially China, the birthplace of traditional Chinese medicine, which is a battleground for global natural plant medicine enterprises.
Recently, Jiang Hua, the newly appointed president of OTC Department of Novartis China, announced in Guangzhou that in the future, Novartis will develop Chinese herbal medicines specifically for the China market, and will be able to acquire and sell local pharmaceutical companies for more than 500 million yuan.
Novartis ranks fourth in the international OTC market share. Due to the late entry into China, the current sales share in China OTC market is not high, and I hope to improve the sales performance in China through Chinese medicine business.
In fact, Novartis is not the only one drooling over Chinese medicine and the Chinese medicine market. Many foreign pharmaceutical companies have shown strong interest in Chinese medicine. According to the data, at present, more than 80 companies and 40 research institutions around the world are engaged in the development of new natural medicines.
The United States has started clinical trials of Chinese medicine compounds and preparations, while Germany intends to include Chinese medicine in the traditional treatment category in the current medical insurance law. Russia and Switzerland are also optimistic about Chinese medicine.
In the past few years, foreign-funded Chinese medicine enterprises have quietly intervened in the Chinese medicine market in China in the form of joint ventures and sole proprietorships, and sold most of their products to the mainland.
Statistics show that at present, the annual sales of the world botanical medicine market exceeds 654.38+0.6 billion US dollars, with an annual growth rate of 654.38+00% ~ 20%. As a big country of traditional Chinese medicine, China exports only about $654.38 billion of traditional Chinese medicine preparations every year.
In sharp contrast, China has imported more than 600 million dollars of natural botanicals every year, and the Chinese patent medicine market in China has far exceeded its export volume, and this trend is still growing.
According to the statistics of Guangdong Customs, in the first half of this year, the value of Chinese patent medicines exported by Guangdong enterprises was 7.47 million US dollars, an increase of 10.3% over last year, while the value of Chinese patent medicines imported by Guangdong Province was 38170,000 US dollars, an increase of 29.6%. In terms of absolute value and growth rate, imports of Chinese patent medicines are far greater than exports, and the ratio of imports to exports has expanded to five times.
The formula of "Liushen Pill" commonly used by the people in China, together with "Jiuxin Pill" made of authentic Chinese medicine raw materials, immediately became a best-selling foreign Chinese medicine in China, bringing an annual sales of US$ 6,543.8+billion to a Japanese Chinese medicine enterprise.
In Japan, 75% of raw materials for traditional Chinese medicine production are imported from China. A Japanese Chinese medicine company uses China's proprietary Chinese medicine Liushen Pill to make the pill, with annual sales exceeding 654.38 billion US dollars, a large part of which is sold to China.
Niuhuang Qingxin Pill is also a traditional Chinese patent medicine. However, if China wants to produce an improved oral liquid or capsule of Niuhuang Qingxin Pill, it must look at the faces of Koreans, because they have applied to the Chinese Patent Office for the patents of these two products.
Americans use eight patents of Chinese herbal medicine mint in their hands to collect money in high-profit markets such as chewing gum; As the hometown of mint, China can only earn a little money by mint lotus root and mint tea.
The Germans simply moved the factory to China, transported Ginkgo biloba leaves back to their own country for deep processing, and then sold them back to the China market ... Chuanbei loquat cream, Baoxin oil, Qufeng oil, safflower oil and other "foreign Chinese medicines" actually beat the domestic similar products.
In a Chinese medicine shop, a customer looked at five or six kinds of Liuwei Dihuang pills with different packages and different manufacturers at the counter and hesitated. What is even more embarrassing for this customer is that the salesperson actually recommended a so-called "foreign Chinese medicine" that is "better than pure Chinese medicine".
With the gradual opening of the pharmaceutical market, China's traditional Chinese medicine industry shows no signs of going abroad, but shows a trend of "attracting wolves into the room". In just a few years, "foreign Chinese medicine" from Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and other countries has entered the China market in large quantities, and the ruthless market competition has made the "authentic" Chinese medicine country really feel the grim situation.
In fact, the global fever of TCM is heating up, but in China, TCM, as the quintessence of the country, is gradually declining. Statistics also make a footnote for the decline of the Chinese medicine market: 10 years ago, Chinese medicine accounted for about 28% ~ 30% of the Chinese medicine market, while last year, Chinese medicine accounted for only 45 billion, about 18% of the Chinese medicine market of about 250 billion yuan.
A famous Chinese-American scholar and doctor, he was an adviser to the US Presidential Palace and a core member of the US Senate. dr. zhang, president of Mingdao University in the United States, once told the media: "Policy makers in western countries believe that natural medicines based on Chinese medicine will become a strategic industry with great development space; At the same time, it also regards' internationalization of Chinese medicine' as a commercial war against China. "
The prevalence of "foreign traditional Chinese medicine" in China has worried many people in the industry. According to experts, China is a country rich in Chinese medicine resources, with nearly 5,000 Chinese medicine enterprises. However, faced with the unprecedented opportunities for the development of traditional Chinese medicine, more and more people in China are taking "foreign traditional Chinese medicine", which is alarming.
Foreign capital snapped up Chinese medicine formula.
In recent years, some countries in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Europe have bought raw materials from China at low prices, and then refined them and sold them back to the China market at high prices. At the same time, foreign businessmen have stepped up their efforts to collect and study the secret recipes and remedies of folk Chinese medicine, and applied for patents. For example, Niuhuang Qingxin Pill is a traditional Chinese patent medicine, but if you want to produce its improved oral liquid and microcapsule products, you have to get the consent of Koreans, because it has applied for an invention patent in China.
Since 1994, the number of foreign pharmaceutical companies applying for patent protection in China has increased year by year, including Japan, South Korea, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Canada and other countries, which reflects their patent awareness and pioneering and advanced medical strategy.
At the beginning of July this year, Novo Nordisk China R&D Center, the world's leading diabetes treatment company, was completed in Zhongguancun Academy of Life Sciences. Subsequently, Roche, a multinational pharmaceutical company, set up China R&D Center in Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Pudong.
The insiders hit the nail on the head: Foreign-funded enterprises entered China, not only aiming at the "high quality and low price" scientific research talents in China, but also aiming at the advantages and loopholes in the scientific research development of Chinese medicine countries. More importantly, they aimed at the natural barrier of Chinese medicine's lack of "patent".
As the quintessence of China medicine, Chinese medicine has a history of several thousand years in China, with rich historical and cultural background, strong national color and regional characteristics. Therefore, China should have more independent intellectual property rights in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.
However, since 1985, the number of Chinese medicine invention patent applications has never increased significantly, hovering around 1700. So far, none of the five national first-class secret formulas, including Huatuo Zaizao Pill, has a patent. China applied for more than 3,000 patents of traditional Chinese medicine abroad, while foreign countries applied for more than 10000 patents of traditional Chinese medicine in China. "Foreign patents" have accounted for more than 80% of the high-tech in China's medical field.
It is said that foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Japan, South Korea and Germany have been increasing patent applications for traditional Chinese medicine. Last year, Novartis cooperated with China Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine with great fanfare and entered the traditional Chinese medicine industry in China in a unique way. Other foreign pharmaceutical companies are also constantly using cooperation, mergers and acquisitions, mergers and other ways to "snap up" some valuable ancient prescriptions and prescriptions in China.
In recent years, 40 kinds of herbal medicines from 10 countries have been successfully registered in China, but none of them have been officially registered in China overseas, which is sad.
According to reports, western medicine is studied from the composition, so applying for a patent can be completely protected; At the beginning, Chinese medicine was a prescription, and it was difficult to get real protection under the current form of intellectual property protection, so many Chinese medicine enterprises were reluctant to apply for patents.
According to statistics, more than 90% of traditional Chinese medicines in China have not applied for patents. According to experts' analysis, this is mainly because many traditional Chinese medicines lack sufficient clinical trial data, so it is difficult to prove their efficacy and apply for patents. And many Chinese medicines exist as secret recipes. Although the curative effect is remarkable, the mechanism is still unclear. On the other hand, Chinese medicine has yet to be standardized, which is one of the biggest obstacles to entering the international market.
It is for these reasons that China lost a large number of Chinese medicine formulas. The protection of intellectual property rights has become an important problem that puzzles traditional pharmaceutical enterprises in China.
Artemisinin produced in China is a typical example. As an effective monomer isolated from Artemisia annua, a folk malaria treatment herb in China, it is a new drug independently developed by Chinese scientists and registered internationally. Although China has achieved success in the research and development of compound preparations, it has sold its intellectual property rights outside China to Novartis. That is to say, artemisinin of all enterprises in China can only realize its value through Novartis, and Novartis only blocked the necks of pharmaceutical companies in China with intellectual property rights.
It is said that there are many similar cases, including Japanese Jiuxin Pill developed on the basis of China Liushen Pill, "Niuhuang Qingxin Liquid" developed on the basis of "Niuhuang Jiuxin Pill" in South Korea, and authentic Chinese medicine mint in Jiangsu. At present, eight patents have fallen into the hands of Americans. These products originally belonging to China were patented by foreign countries and then sold back to the China market. The same thing continues every day.
What is even more intolerable is that, in order to attract overseas funds, some domestic Chinese medicine enterprises will not hesitate to hand over their intellectual property rights-Chinese medicine prescriptions to foreign businessmen. This practice of "treating the symptoms but not the root cause" will only put China's Chinese medicine production in a more disadvantageous position in international competition.
On the one hand, a large number of "foreign traditional Chinese medicine" attacked the city in China, because the basic research of Chinese medicine industry in China is backward and the technical level is low; On the other hand, the patent system of traditional Chinese medicine is not perfect.
In fact, China's patent system was established late, and the patent law was promulgated only 20 years ago. Our research and application of intellectual property strategy is still in its infancy, and the United States has implemented intellectual property strategy for 90 years, so there are still many loopholes and deficiencies in China's patent system.
It is urgent to hold the line of defense.
As the bright pearl of China's excellent traditional culture, Chinese medicine is the most internationally competitive and influential discipline in China. However, due to the late start of intellectual property protection in China, the weak awareness of intellectual property protection among the whole people and the serious loss of precious wealth of Chinese medicine, the situation that "foreign Chinese medicine" occupies the main international market of Chinese medicine has formed. The problem of intellectual property rights, which has plagued China traditional Chinese medicine for many years, has now evolved into an important battlefield to defend the local market.
China was originally the birthplace of Chinese herbal medicine, but in recent years, the trend of "foreign Chinese medicine" rushing to China has intensified. One is "foreign Chinese medicine" with high technology and high added value, and the other is "local Chinese medicine" with low technology and low added value. As a result of this competition, the country's internal position is bound to falter, and China's leading position in the international market can easily be dominated by other countries. Then, how to face the challenge from "foreign Chinese medicine" and keep the door of "home"?
In recent years, developed countries have taken advantage of China's defects in intellectual property management to obtain intellectual property rights of Chinese medicine through cooperation, acquisition and merger, resulting in some valuable ancient prescriptions, proven prescriptions and ancestral secrets being taken away by foreign businessmen at low prices.
At the same time, foreign enterprises use China to apply for patents, prohibit China enterprises from producing and selling, sell their products back to the China market, or crush China enterprises through tort compensation. Many foreign pharmaceutical companies have made huge profits by encroaching on the resources of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions for free.
Analysts pointed out that if effective protection measures are not taken as soon as possible, "local Chinese medicine" will be difficult to resist the impact of "foreign Chinese medicine", and China's losses in the Chinese medicine market will be incalculable, not only will it be difficult to enter the international market, but even the domestic market will be lost.
In this regard, relevant experts said that intellectual property rights are undoubtedly a sharp weapon that ethnic Chinese medicine industry must firmly grasp when facing challenges, which has become a * * * knowledge. At present, China's traditional Chinese medicine industry should strengthen the awareness of intellectual property rights and closely combine the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine resources with patent development.
In view of the grim situation faced by Chinese medicine, it is necessary to raise people's awareness of intellectual property protection of Chinese medicine and make people realize the important role and value of Chinese medicine. For Chinese medicine enterprises, they should first apply for patents, protect the traditional natural resources of Chinese medicine with patents, and then transform them into intellectual property advantages and economic advantages.
It is said that there are many contents that need to be protected in the field of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine, including patents, trademarks, prescriptions, preparation techniques, effective components of drugs, literature and information resources, Chinese herbal medicines, decoction pieces, etc., which should be protected by patents as much as possible. In particular, patents should be used to protect the core technology of traditional Chinese medicine, authentic herbs and knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine.
In addition, it is necessary to revise and improve the existing patent law, trademark law, copyright law, regulations on the protection of new plant varieties and other relevant intellectual property laws and regulations, expand the scope of protection, increase the content of protection, and establish a legal environment for fair competition in line with international rules as soon as possible. Encourage the enthusiasm of developing intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine from the system, and protect the precious resources and traditional advantages of traditional Chinese medicine from the law.
Relevant experts said that in the future competition, we should maintain the status of a big country in traditional Chinese medicine. It is urgent to study and develop Chinese medicine with modern science and technology, and we must catch up urgently. Why is Chinese medicine so popular with people at home and abroad? Because it is a science, it can treat diseases optimistically and guide people to stay healthy and live a long life and recover after illness. However, no matter which subject doesn't develop, keep pace with the times and can't adapt to the development of science and technology, it will have no vitality. Although Chinese medicine is traditional and ancient, it is also a relatively new subject in terms of its development. We should cherish it, support it, increase investment and study it with advanced means. Otherwise, TCM will face a very embarrassing situation.
Analysts believe that the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, as a systematic project, is not only the improvement of a dosage form, but also the research and development of one or two new drugs. Under the guidance of TCM theory, it should be the whole process and all-round modernization from TCM resource management to TCM planting, processing, processing, pharmaceutical equipment, technology and innovative drugs. For example, traditional Chinese medicines, which are well-known in the market, are basically "old medicines" that have been circulating for hundreds or even thousands of years. Although the name and packaging are constantly changing, it still uses the production technology of Zhang Zhongjing's era, and its low innovation ability seriously restricts its development speed.
Practice has proved that the organic combination of traditional Chinese medicine and modern science and technology and the application of modern quality control technology in the industrial chain of traditional Chinese medicine are of great benefit to improving the quality level of modern Chinese medicine products and the market competitiveness of enterprises. Many domestic enterprises have tasted the sweetness. Some pharmaceutical groups have started from changing the traditional prescription research and made comprehensive innovations in the fields of medicinal material cultivation, production technology, dosage form reform and control standards, so that Chinese medicine has reached the requirements of modern preparations with "small volume, small dosage, little toxic and side effects" and "high efficiency, quick effect and long effect".