If people boil several herbs with water in a ceramic-like casserole and then sift the ingredientswith a piece of gauze, they will get a dark tea,which is called decoction of medicinal ingredientsby the Chinese and is a cure to illness veryfamiliar to ordinary Chinese people. Now, China’stechnologists are applying modern methodsto transform the ancient-old techniques. Theyextract active ingredients from herbs, processthem and make them into traditional Chinesemedicinaldrop pills, tablets and injections,which are not only easy to take, but also moreeffective in some cases.

As the biggest and veteran industrial city inNorth China, Tianjin takes the lead in this field inthe country. Presently, Tianjin has had 880 traditionalChinese-medicinal drugs which have beenproved by State Food and Drug Administration,competent to make 26 types of Chinese medicamentsincluding drop pills, tablets and injections.It also owns 50 types of protected traditionalChinese medicines. There are 218 types of Chinesemedicines registered for overseas sales, 118types of which are registered as drugs.

What is worth mentioning is that one listedcompany in Tianjin is going through a toughapplication procedure. It is very likely that thedrop pill produced by the company would getthe accreditation of the FDA of America. Thismillet-like little drop pill is able to offer emergencytreatment and provide health care, whichcelebrates an annual turnover of several billionyuan in China.

The Chinese Government has nominated Tianjinas the National Technological Industrial Base forthe Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine.So far, a number of institutes have been establishedsuccessively, including State-level DrugMetabolism Major Laboratory, Tianjin ResearchCenter of Newly-Developed Drugs, Tianjin ResearchCenter for Traditional Chinese Medicine,Tianjin Technological Engineering Center for theModernization of Chinese Medicine, QualityManagement Center for Modern Chinese Medicineand two state-level enterprise technologicalcenters, whose research centers on the safetyevaluation of newly-developed drugs has beengranted GLP accreditation. A technological innovationsystem of the modernization of Chinesemedicine is taking shape.

So far achievement has been made in the researchand development of some importanttechniques concerning the modernization ofChinese medicine. More than 20 importanttechniques are now widely applied in Chinesemedicine enterprises, including three-phasefluidized bed, supercritical fluid extraction,embrane technology, film coating, nano andmolecular distillation. Moreover, research workhas been carried out concerning the techniqueoptimization and quality standard of 80 Chinesemedicine fluid and tablet drugs. There is also adata base for the chemical reference standardsof 200 Chinese-medicinal drugs, and more thanten GAP Chinese-medicinal herbs bases.

Tianjin also established two modern Chinesemedicinalindustry parks of Tasly and TianjinZhong Xin Pharmaceutical Group Corp., and carriedout systemic exploitation of twenty majorChinese-medicinal categories successively. Besides,the city promotes the second exploitationof major Chinese-medicinal products based onthe principle of modernization and internationalization.The number of single drug items, whichhave a sale volume of more than RMB 100 millionyuan, has now increased to five.

However, the modernization of Chinese-medicinaldrugs is just taking off. Japan and South Korea tookthe lead in the exploitation of this area and Chinaonly occupies less than ten percent of the market.

According to the Tianjin Municipal EconomicCommittee, the goal of the base is to improvethe modern logistics of Chinese-medicinaldrugs, information, variety, industry and technologicalR&D, to expedite the modernization andinternationalization of Chinese-medicinal drugs,to develop a number of modern Chinese-medicinalcategories, and to cultivate modern Chinesemedicinalindustry groups with strong innovativecompetence and high industrial intensiveness.

Till the year of 2010, Tianjin will have establisheda sophisticated Chinese-medicinal innovativesystem, constructed 50 standard Chinesemedicinalplantations, completed the exploitationand the second exploitation of 20 modernChinese-medicinal drugs and there will be twotypes of modern Chinese-medicinal drugs enteringthe main-stream international pharmaceuticalmarket. Two groups with more than 10-billion-yuan assets will be created, with a modernChinese-medicinal zone covering the functionsof modern Chinese-medicinal logistics, modernChinese-medicinal production and techniqueexchange, modern Chinese-medicinal export,Chinese-medicinal information exchange andChinese-medicinal culture exchange.