Barriers and countermeasures in developing traditional Chinese medicine in Europe

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the unique cultural treasures of Chinese; it represents a significant feature and prominent advantage of the healthcare cause in China. Data in this paper were from World Health Organization, Chinese Bureau of Statistics, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and PubMed. In recent years, TCM has established a solid foundation in Europe, which made great strides in legislation, education, research, and international exchange, and has enjoyed a vast development space in the continent. Now, TCM is embracing unprecedented development opportunities in Europe. At the same time, the stiff international competition poses a grave threat to China’s TCM industry. With multiple cultural, legal, and institutional challenges, as well as talent shortages in the way, TCM is now facing many difficulties in Europe. To fully prepare and enact active and vigorous steps to seize opportunities, we should have a clear picture about the serious challenges hampering TCM development in Europe. The TCM development at overseas markets has shifted from a spontaneous trade activity into a national strategy spearheaded by the government and participated in by multiple stakeholders. We should make a systematic, comprehensive, and sustainable push in fields such as TCM therapy, healthcare, education, research, culture, and industry development. The ultimate goal is to bring TCMs to the global market and allow them to play a role in safeguarding public health along with modern medicines.

Keywords

traditional Chinese medicine / Europe / development

References

[1] Fan DM. The Year in Chinese Academy of Engineering (5). Xi’an: The Fourth Military Medical University press, 2014 (in Chinese)

[2] World Health Organization. WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023. Geneva, 2013

[3] World Health Organization. WHO traditional medicine strategy 2002–2005. Geneva, 2002 (WHO/EDM/TRM/2002.1)

[4] World Health Organization. WHO medicines strategy 2004–2007. Geneva, 2004 (WHO/EDM/2004.5)

[5] World Health Organization. Continuity and change-implementing the third WHO medicines strategy: 2008–2013. Geneva, 2009 (WHO/EMP/2009.1)

[6] World Health Organization. National policy on traditional medicine and regulation of herbal medicines: report of a WHO global survey. Geneva, 2005

[7] World Health Organization. C. Traditional medicine. In: Implementation of resolutions (progress reports). Report by the Secretariat. Geneva, 2005

[8] Wang M, Franz G. The role of the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph Eur) in quality control of traditional Chinese herbal medicine in European Member States. World J Tradit Chin Med 2015; 1(1): 5–15

[9] Yu WD, Guan T. Economic effect analysis and countermeasure research of Chinese medicine in China’s free trade zone arrangements with Switzerland. Economist (Jing Ji Shi) 2014; 9: 100–102 (in Chinese)

[10] Xiao ZZ, Xing R, Guo XG. The current state of Chinese medicine in the Europe and thoughts on its development. J Hunan Univ Tradit Chin Med (Hunan Zhong Yi Yao Da Xue Xue Bao) 2012; 32(5): 75–78 (in Chinese)

[11] Yao ZJ, Wang ZQ, Yu JB, Zheng XF. View at the development of acupuncture from the success of application for world immaterial heritages with acupuncture. J Hubei Univ Tradit Chin Med (Hubei Zhong Yi Yao Da Xue Xue Bao) 2011; 13(4): 42–44 (in Chinese)

[12] Wang CY, Bai XY, Wang CH. Traditional Chinese medicine: a treasured natural resource of anticancer drug research and development. Am J Chin Med 2014; 42(3): 543–559

[13] Jiang YG. Several problems of international development of Chinese medicine-medical knowledge and analysis in Swiss. J Tradit Chin Med (Zhong Yi Za Zhi) 2012; 53(9): 799–801 (in Chinese)

[14] Weng XY, A brief analysis of 2004/24/EC-EU traditional herbal medicine law. Foreign Med Sci 2004; 26(5): 259–261

[15] Wu WY, Yang WZ<?Pub Caret?>, Hou JJ, Guo DA. Current status and future perspective in the globalization of traditional Chinese medicines. World J Tradit Chin Med 2015; 1(1): 1–4

[16] Qu L, Zou W, Zhou Z, Zhang T, Greef J, Wang M. Non-European traditional herbal medicines in Europe: a community herbal monograph perspective. J Ethnopharmacol 2014; 156: 107–114

[17] Pan M, Ying SL. Research progress on international education promoting the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine. J Chengdu Univ Tradit Chin Med (Chengdu Zhong Yi Yao Da Xue Xue Bao) 2015; 17(2): 6–7 (in Chinese)

[18] Zhang YB, Lu XF. Foreign exchange and cooperation of Chinese medicine and influence since the reform and opening up. Med Soc (Yi Xue Yu She Hui) 2015; 28(4): 14–16 (in Chinese)

[19] Li J. Current situation and thinking of the development of higher education of TCM in China. Northwest Med Educ (Xi Bei Yi Xue Jiao Yu) 2010; 18(5): 857–887 (in Chinese)

[20] National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China. Statistical Data, Nov. 16, 2015.

[21] China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Medicines & Health Products. Statistical Data, Nov. 16, 2015.

[22] Uzuner H, Fan TP, Dias A, Guo DA, El-Nezami HS, Xu Q. Establishing an EU-China consortium on traditional Chinese medicine research. Chin Med 2010; 5(1): 42–47

[23] Fan DM. Holistic integrative medicine. Am J Dig Dis 2014; 1(1): 22–36

[24] Fan DM. Medicine and science. Negative (Yi Xue Zheng Ming) 2015; 6(2): 1–19 (in Chinese)

[25] Fung FY, Linn YC. Developing traditional Chinese medicine in the era of evidence-based medicine: current evidences and challenges. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2015;2015:425037PMID: 25949261

[26] Jiang M, Yang J, Zhang C, Liu B, Chan K, Cao H, Lu A. Clinical studies with traditional Chinese medicine in the past decade and future research and development. Planta Med 2010; 76(17): 2048–2064

[27] Fan DM. Exploration of Medicine Development. Xi’an: The Fourth Military Medical University press, 2014 (in Chinese)

[28] Ding Q, Liu FH, Liu Y, Cao C. Plant drug quality control strategy abroad and enlightenment to traditional Chinese medicine development in China. Chin Inform Tradit Chin Med (Zhongguo Zhong Yi Yao Xin Xi Za Zhi) 2011; 18(3): 1–4 (in Chinese)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg